Ann Teresa Mathews

Ann Teresa Mathews (religious name, Mother Bernardina Teresa Xavier of St. Joseph;[1] 1732 – June 18, 1800) was a nun born in the British colony of Maryland who founded the first Catholic convent in the United States in 1790.

Biography

Mathews (sometimes spelled "Matthews") was born to a Catholic family in the British colony of Maryland.[2] She was one of seven siblings, one of whom was the priest and educator William Matthews.[3] In 1754 she went to Europe to join the English-speaking Discalced Carmelites in Hoogstraet in the Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium).[4] She joined the order on December 3, 1755 and was elected prioress of their convent on April 13, 1774.[2][4]

In 1790, with the impact of French Revolution still uncertain and Emperor Joseph II's campaign against monastic establishments under way, Father Charles Neale, the nuns' Maryland-born chaplain, offered Mathews farmland in Port Tobacco, Maryland, where she could build a convent.[2][5] The new residence was dedicated on October 15, 1790. A convent for contemplatives, it was the first convent for Catholic women established in the United States. Mathews was its prioress until her death ten years later.[4]

She had nieces Susanna Mathews (Sister Mary Eleanor) and Ann Mathews (Sister Mary Aloysia) who joined her in Hoogstraet and returned with her to the Maryland convent.[2]

References
  1. Benowitz, June Melby, ed. (2017). Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 344. ISBN 9781440839870. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  2. Guilday, Peter (1922). The Life and Times of John Carroll: Archbishop of Baltimore, 1735-1815 (Public domain ed.). Encyclopedia Press. pp. 487ff. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  3. Newman, Harry Wright (2007). The Maryland Semmes and Kindred Families. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-7884-2308-6. Archived from the original on March 3, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2019 – via Google Books.
  4. Stiverson, Gregory A. (2000). "Matthews, Ann Teresa (1732–1800), a founder of the first Roman Catholic religious order for women in the United States". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0101137. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  5. "First Convent of Nuns in America". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved August 1, 2019.


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