ñLathrop, Mother Mary Alphonsa1851╨1926writer and religiousBorn in Lenox, Massachusetts, on May 20, 1851, Rose Hawthorne was the youngest child of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In her childhood the family traveled much in Europe; when in America they lived mainly in Concord, Massachusetts. Rose attended various schools and was also educated by tutors. In 1868 she accompanied her widowed mother to Dresden, Germany, and in 1870 to London, where she took some courses in art. In September 1871 she married George P. Lathrop, with whom she returned to Boston. There and from about 1881 in New York City, while her husband worked as a journalist and editor, she published a number of stories and sketches in the Atlantic Monthly, St. Nicholas, Harper╒s, Appleton╒s, and other periodicals. In 1888 she published a volume of poems, Along the Shore, and in 1894 she and her husband, converts to the Catholic faith three years earlier, published A Story of Courage on the founding of the Visitation Order in Georgetown, D.C. Her series of articles on her father for the Atlantic Monthly was later published in book form as Memories of Hawthorne, 1897. In 1895 she and her husband were separated. The next year, after a period of retreat and in response to a variety of causes, she decided to devote her life to the care of persons suffering incurable cancer. She had had occasion to see the sort of care available in public institutions, and she resolved to provide comfort and attention to those unable to afford private hospitalization. After a three-month nursing course at the New York Cancer Hospital she established herself in rooms in the Lower East Side tenement district. She moved to larger quarters in 1897, and in 1898 she and her first associate, Alice Huber, organized themselves as the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. In September 1899 they became Sister Mary Alphonsa and Sister Mary Rose, lay sisters of the Dominican third order, and in December 1900 they took the habit and their first vows. The small community became the Dominican Congregation of St. Rose of Lima, and Sister Alphonsa became Mother Alphonsa. From 1899 the community operated the 15-bed St. Rose╒s Free Home in New York City, and in 1901 it acquired the 40-bed Rosary Hill Home in Sherman Park (later Hawthorne), New York. In addition to her work with patients Mother Alphonsa also devoted much time to writing, the proceeds all going to the order. She also founded a magazine, Christ╒s Poor, in 1901. She made her final vows in 1909. She continued her work without interruption until her death at Rosary Hill on July 9, 1926. She was succeeded by Sister Mary Rose as superior of the order, which continued to grow. styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ ( 5¬ > !I ╞ !I ╓ !I ╪ !I Σ !I µ !I ε !I ≡ !I · !I = !I L !I ¡ !I ┐ !I * !I : !I _ !I t !I } 5¬ ~ !I 6 5¬ 7 !I │ !I └ !I link `
