Lathrop, Rose Hawthorne

Lathrop, Rose Hawthorne,

1851–1926, American nun, philanthropist, and writer; youngest daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1871 she married George Parsons LathropLathrop, George Parsons
, 1851–98, American author, b. near Honolulu; studied in Germany (1867–70). He was the husband of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
..... Click the link for more information.
. In 1891 she and her husband embraced Roman Catholicism. She chose as a mission the work of helping penniless sufferers from incurable cancer and went to live in New York City slums to be near them. She founded St. Rose's Free Home for Incurable Cancer in New York City, and in 1901 she established for the same purpose Rosary Hill Home at Hawthorne, N.Y. She took religious orders after her husband's death in 1898 and became Mother Mary Alphonsa Lathrop. She founded a community of sisters to perpetuate her work; they are Dominican tertiaries. Her literary works include Along the Shore (1888), verse; A Story of Courage (1894), an account, written with her husband, of the Visitation convent at Georgetown; and Memories of Hawthorne (1923).

Bibliography

See K. Burton, Sorrow Built a Bridge (1937); A. T. Sheehan, Rose Hawthorne; the Pilgrimage of Nathaniel's Daughter (1959).

Lathrop, Rose Hawthorne (Mother Alphonse)

(1851–1926) Catholic nun; born in Lenox, Mass. (daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne). Raised and educated abroad, she married George Parsons Lathrop in 1871 and with him converted to Catholicism (1891); they later separated. After his death in 1898 she became a Dominican nun and founded a home for terminally ill cancer patients (eventually moved to Hawthorne, N.Y.) and a community of nuns devoted to their care. She wrote poems and other works, including (with her husband) Memories of Hawthorne (1897).