View source for Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

{{Short description|American Dominican religious sister (1851–1926)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific-prefix = [[Venerable]]
|name = Mother Mary Alphonsa
|honorific-suffix = [[Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne|OP]]
|image = Rose Hawthorne Lathrop.jpg
|alt =
|caption = Mother Mary Alphonsa in her habit
|birth_name = Rose Hawthorne
|birth_date = {{birth date|1851|5|20}}
|birth_place = [[Lenox, Massachusetts]], U.S. 
|death_date = {{death date and age|1926|7|9|1851|5|20}}
|death_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (State)|New York]], U.S. 
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'''Rose Hawthorne Lathrop''', [[Order of Preachers|OP]], also known as '''Mother Mary Alphonsa''' (May 20, 1851 – July 9, 1926), was an American [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] religious sister, writer, [[social worker]], and foundress of the [[Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne]].

==Early life and education==
Rose Hawthorne was born on May 20, 1851, in [[Lenox, Massachusetts]], to [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and his wife [[Sophia Hawthorne|Sophia Peabody]].<ref>Valenti, 1</ref> Sophia was assisted in the birth by her father, [[Nathaniel Peabody (Boston)|Nathaniel Peabody]].<ref>Mellow, 363</ref> Hawthorne wrote about the infant Rose to his friend, [[Horatio Bridge]], comparing her birth to the publication of a book: "Mrs. Hawthorne published a little work, two months ago, which still lies in sheets; but, I assure you, it makes some noise in the world, both by day and night. In plain English, we have another little red-headed daughter—a very bright, strong, and healthy imp, but, at present, with no pretentions to beauty."<ref>McFarland, 130</ref> Rose Hawthorne and her siblings were raised in a positive environment and their parents did not believe in harsh discipline or physical punishment.<ref>Miller, Peggy J. and Grace E. Cho. ''Self-esteem in Time and Place: How American Families Imagine, Enact, and Personalize a Cultural Ideal''. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018: 7. {{ISBN|9780199959723}}</ref>

On July 28, 1851, Sophia took Hawthorne and her older sister, Una, to visit relatives in [[West Newton, Massachusetts]].<ref>Mellow, 375</ref> Growing up, Rose lived in Massachusetts, Liverpool, London, Paris, Rome, and Florence. The family returned to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1860. There, her older brother [[Julian Hawthorne|Julian]] was enrolled in a co-educational school run by [[Franklin Benjamin Sanborn]]. Though their friend, the poet [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]], recommended the Hawthorne girls attend the same school, neither was enrolled. Sophia wrote: "We entirely disapprove of this commingling of youths and maidens at the electric age in school. I find no end of ill effect from it, and this is why I do not send Una and Rose to your school."<ref>Mellow, 537</ref> Two years after Nathaniel's death in 1864, Hawthorne was enrolled at a boarding school run by [[Diocletian Lewis]] in nearby [[Lexington, Massachusetts]]; she disliked the experience.<ref>Valenti, 34</ref>

After Nathaniel Hawthorne's death, the family moved to Germany and then to England. Sophia and Una died there in 1871 and 1877, respectively.

==Marriage==
Rose married author [[George Parsons Lathrop]] in 1871. Prior to the marriage, George had shown romantic interest in Hawthorne's sister Una. Their brother Julian Hawthorne used the love triangle as an inspiration for his first novel, ''Bressant'', in 1873.<ref>Scharnhorst, Gary. ''Julian Hawthorne: The Life of a Prodigal Son''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2014: 62−63. {{ISBN|978-0-252-03834-1}}</ref> In 1876, the Lathrops had a son, Francis. Rose Hawthorne tried to become an author in her own right, much like her husband, father, and brother. She serialized her novel ''Miss Dilletante'' in the Boston ''Courier'' under George's editorship in 1878<ref>Valenti, 61</ref> and published a book of poems, ''Along the Shore'', in 1888.

In the spring of 1879, Rose and her husband purchased her family's former home in Concord, [[The Wayside]], with borrowed funds, where they lived until their son Francis died of [[diphtheria]] at the age of five in 1881.<ref>Valenti, 63–64</ref> They returned to New York City but moved to [[New London, Connecticut]], in 1887 for George's health.<ref>Valenti, 96</ref> Following Francis' death George had become an alcoholic and was increasingly unstable.<ref name="Allitt143">Allitt, 143</ref> Una suspected he abused Rose.<ref name="Wineapple4">Wineapple, 8</ref> George also competed with Hawthorne's brother Julian for control of Nathaniel Hawthorne's legacy.<ref name="Smith21">Smith and Himmel, 21</ref> In 1883, Julian planned to publish ''Dr. Grimshawe's Secret'', a manuscript left unfinished by their father, but Rose did not believe in its existence and suspected him of forgery or perpetrating a hoax.<ref>Valenti, 67</ref>

In New London, the Lathrops became involved with the Catholic summer school movement and collaborated on a book, ''A Story of Courage: A History of the [[Georgetown Visitation Monastery|Georgetown Visitation Convent]]''.<ref>Connor, 51</ref> Both Hawthorne and Lathrop converted to [[Roman Catholicism]] in 1891. Though "To many of their old friends this conversion came as a shock", Hawthorne's journey to Catholicism had been years in the making.
<blockquote>
Their travels through England, Portugal, France and Italy [had] exposed the Hawthornes to the 'Roman Church,' often misunderstood in the Protestant circles of New England … Hawthorne would write of her experience at the age of seven of seeing Pope Pius IX during Holy Week from his balcony: "I became eloquent about the Pope, and was rewarded by a gift from my mother of a little medallion of him and a gold scudo with an excellent likeness thereon, both always tenderly reverenced by me."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hawthorne-dominicans.org/biography.html|title=Biography}}</ref>
</blockquote>
Nevertheless, the Lathrops' marriage continued to suffer and they separated permanently in 1896. George died of cirrhosis three years later.<ref>Valenti, 129</ref>

==Career==
[[File:RoseHawthorneLathrop1897.png|thumb|Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, from an 1897 publication]]
Hawthorne sought greater purpose in her life and spent time with the [[Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Halifax)]] in [[Wellesley, Massachusetts|Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts]], becoming inspired by their motto, "I am for God and for the poor."<ref name=OMalley255>O'Malley, 255</ref> She was further inspired by her relationship with [[Emma Lazarus]], whom she befriended in 1881.<ref>Young, 186</ref> After Lazarus's death from cancer at age 38, Hawthorne recalled that she was at least comfortable, unlike others who were poor. She wrote later, "Though I grieved deeply for her, I would not pity her, for she never knew unaided suffering, but every amelioration."<ref>Smith and Himmel, 22</ref> As a source for her motivation to work with incurable impoverished people, she cited the story of a young seamstress who was too poor to afford medical treatment and instead had herself admitted to an institution for the insane on Blackwell's Island.<ref name=OMalley255/>

In the summer of 1896, Hawthorne trained as a nurse at the [[Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center|New York Cancer Hospital]], the first institution in the United States to provide training in treating cancer at a time when general hospitals in the city did not admit patients with cancer.<ref name=Smith23>Smith and Himmel, 23</ref> Later that year, she founded a charitable organization named after [[Rose of Lima]], Sister Rose's Free Home, to care for impoverished cancer patients.<ref name=Wineapple4/> At first, she visited patients at their homes. In October 1896, she rented three rooms in a tenement on Scammel Street<ref>O'Malley, 256</ref> on the [[Lower East Side]], a poor immigrant neighborhood,<ref>Smith and Himmel, 18</ref> with the help of an assistant named Alice Huber.<ref name=Allitt143/> A Dominican [[priesthood in the Catholic Church|priest]], Clement Thuente, witnessed their work in February 1899 and encouraged them to join the Dominican order as [[Third Order of Saint Dominic|tertiaries]].<ref name="O'Malley">O'Malley, 257</ref><ref name=MotherMaryAlphonsa>{{cite web|title=Mother Mary Alphonsa, Daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, is Now Called a Servant of God |first=Stephanie |last=Mann |date=July 9, 2017 |work=National Catholic Register |publisher=[[EWTN News, Inc.]] |url=http://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/mother-mary-alphonsa-daughter-of-nathaniel-hawthorne-is-now-called-a-servan |access-date=2017-07-09}}</ref>

On December 8, 1900, Hawthorne founded a new [[religious congregation]], with the approval of Archbishop [[Michael A. Corrigan]] of New York.<ref name=MotherMaryAlphonsa/> The congregation was named the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer; she became its first Mother Superior, with the name Mother Mary Alphonsa.<ref name=MotherMaryAlphonsa/> Alice became known as Mother Rose.<ref name="O'Malley"/> The congregation — now known as the [[Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne]] — opened a facility called St. Rose's Home on Water Street in Manhattan; it then moved to [[Cherry Street (Manhattan)|Cherry Street]], before settling north of New York City in what is now Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne.<ref>Connor, 53</ref>

Hawthorne's brother, Julian, considered her decision to be a martyrdom, writing, "Nothing less than the extreme would satisfy her thirst for self-sacrifice."<ref name=Smith21/> When he was imprisoned for mail fraud, she traveled to Washington, D.C., on April 3, 1913, to ask President [[Woodrow Wilson]] to pardon him. Julian was angered by her intervention, and no pardon was granted.<ref>Wineapple, 6</ref>

==Death and legacy==
On July 8, 1926, Hawthorne wrote various letters asking for donations until nearly 10 o'clock before going to bed. She died in her sleep<ref>Valenti, 179</ref> on July 9, the day that would have been her parents' 84th wedding anniversary.<ref name=MotherMaryAlphonsa/> She was buried on the grounds of the motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters in Hawthorne, N.Y.

Hawthorne received a medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences for "notable achievement" in 1914. In 1925, she was awarded an honorary [[Master of Arts]] from [[Bowdoin College]]. On April 18, 1926, the [[Rotary Club]] of New York presented her with a service medal as "soldier of love, a friend of the poor, organizer of rare ability, hope of the hopeless".<ref>Valenti, 177</ref>

The Rose Hawthorne Guild was established to promote her [[Canonization#Since 1983|cause for canonization]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Rose Hawthorne Guild |url=https://hawthorne-dominicans.org/rose-hawthorne.html |website=Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne |access-date=27 November 2018}}</ref> In 2003, Cardinal [[Edward Egan]], Archbishop of the [[Archdiocese of New York]], approved the movement for Hawthorne's canonization.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 9 July 2017 | url = http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/god-poor-rose-hawthorne-lathrops-ministry-mercy | work = Crisis Magazine | date = 14 July 2014 | title = Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's Ministry of Mercy | first = John F. | last = Quinn }}</ref> On March 14, 2024, [[Pope Francis]] recognized Hawthorne's life of heroic virtue and declared her [[The Venerable|Venerable]], the final step before [[Beatification]], which would require a miracle to take place through the intercession of Hawthorne.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-14 |title=Pope advances sainthood causes, including daughter of U.S. author |url=https://catholicreview.org/pope-advances-sainthood-causes-including-daughter-of-u-s-author/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Catholic Review |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Selected works==
* ''Miss Dilletante'', 1878[9]
* ''Along the Shore'', 1888
* ''A Story of Courage: A History of the [[Georgetown Visitation Monastery|Georgetown Visitation Convent]]''
* ''Memories of Hawthorne''<ref name="Logan-1912">{{cite book |last1=Logan |first1=Mrs John A. |title=The Part Taken by Women in American History |date=1912 |publisher=Perry-Nalle publishing Company |pages=532–33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA532 |access-date=13 June 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
*{{cite book|last=Allitt|first=Patrick|title=Catholic Converts: British and American Intellectuals Turn to Rome|url=https://archive.org/details/catholicconverts00alli|url-access=registration|year=1997|location=New York|publisher=Cornell University|isbn=0-8014-8663-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Connor|first=Charles Patrick|title=Classic Catholic Converts|year=2001|location=San Francisco|publisher=Ignatius Press|isbn=0-89870-787-0}}
*{{cite book|last=McFarland|first=Philip|title=Hawthorne in Concord|year=2004|location=New York|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=0-8021-1776-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hawthorneinconco00mcfa}}
*{{cite book|last=Mellow|first=James R.|title=Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times|url=https://archive.org/details/nathanielhawthor0000mell|url-access=registration|year=1980|location=Boston|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|isbn=0-395-27602-0}}
*{{cite book|last=O'Malley|first=Vincent J.|title=Saints of North America|year=2004|location=Huntington, IN|publisher=Our Sunday Visitor Publishing|isbn=1-931709-52-1}}
*{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Fran|last2=Himmel|first2=Sheila|title=Changing the Way We Die: Compassionate End of Life Care and The Hospice Movement|year=2013|publisher=Cleis Press|isbn=978-1-936740-51-2}}
*{{cite book|last=Valenti|first=Patricia Dunlavy|title=To Myself a Stranger: A Biography of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop|year=1991|location=Baton Rouge, LA|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|isbn=978-0-8071-2473-4}}
*{{cite book|last=Wineapple|first=Brenda|title=Hawthorne: A Life|url=https://archive.org/details/hawthornelife00wine|url-access=registration|year=2003|location=New York|publisher=Random House|isbn=0-8129-7291-0}}
*{{cite book|last=Young|first=Bette Roth|title=Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters|year=1995|location=Philadelphia|publisher=Jewish Publication Society|isbn=0-8276-0618-4}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Rose Hawthorne}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2261| name=Rose Hawthorne Lathrop}}
* {{Internet Archive author |name=Rose Hawthorne Lathrop}}
*[http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/rose.html Ibiblio: Rose Hawthorne Lathrop / Mother Alphonsa]
*[http://www.rosaryhillhome.org/ Rosary Hill Home] official website
* {{LCAuth|n90711210|Rose Hawthorne Lathrop|7|}}

{{Nathaniel Hawthorne|state=collapsed}}
{{Dominican Order}}
{{Canonization}}
{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= United States |portal4= Saints}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lathrop, Rose}}
[[Category:1851 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American poets]]
[[Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns]]
[[Category:19th-century American Roman Catholic nuns]]
[[Category:American Servants of God]]
[[Category:American women founders]]
[[Category:American founders]]
[[Category:Catholics from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:Dominican Sisters]]
[[Category:Founders of Catholic religious communities]]
[[Category:Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
[[Category:People from Lenox, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York]]
[[Category:Poets from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Poets from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from New York City]]
[[Category:19th-century American women poets]]