Rose Hawthorne - Mother Alphonsa Lathrop

Rebroadcast of the long running radio program, "The Ave Maria Hour", a presentation of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. www.AtonementFriars.org

Rose Hawthorne - Mother Alphonsa Lathrop – Rose Hawthorne, the second daughter of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1891 and founded a religious order to care for victims of cancer. Born in Lenox, Mass., May 20, 1851, Rose grew up moving from place to place. She lived in West Newton, Mass.; Concord, Mass.; and as an infant in Liverpool, England; then London, Paris, Rome, and Florence, Italy. Rose made her vows as a Dominican nun Dec. 8, 1900, taking the name Alphonsa. With her first companion, Sister M. Rose, she founded the Dominican Congregation of St. Rose of Lima, later called the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. In 1901, Mother Alphonsa opened Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York (now the mother home of the order). She died there July 9, 1926, the anniversary of her parents' wedding.