Identifier: lifetimesofmostr00shea (find matches)
Title: Life and times of the Most Rev. John Carroll, bishop and first archibishop of Baltimore
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Shea, John Gilmary, 1824-1892
Subjects: Carroll, John, abp., 1735-1815. (from old catalog) Catholic Church
Publisher: New York, J.G. Shea
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
When the Catholics near Port Tobacco forwarded to the
Convent at Antwerp their request for a branch of that ven-
erable community, which dates back almost to St. Teresa her-
self, having been founded by Mother Anne of the Ascension,
only thirty-seven years after the death of the illustrious re-
viver of the Carmelite order, the Bishop of Antwerp ad-
dressed a letter to Bishop Carroll, and the newly appointed
Bishop of Baltimore readily gave his consent. Rev. Charles
Neale selected four nuns, one from the Mother-house at Ant-
werp, Mother Clare F. Dickinson, and three from the con-
vent at Hogstraet, Reverend Mother Bernardina Mathews,
Superior of that house, and her nieces Aloysia and Eleonora
Mathews. They left Europe April 9, 1790, and after a tem-
pestuous voyage landed at Mr. Robert Brents, near Port To-
bacco. Rev. Charles Neale had given the little community
a farm belonging to him, but as it had not a building suited
to the wants of the nuns, they exchanged it for property be-
longing to Mr. Baker Brooke, who had just erected a large
Text Appearing After Image:
PORTRAIT OF MOTHER FRANCES DICKINSON, (384)
CONVENT AT PORT TOBACCO. 385
house. Here the community organized, taking possession on
the 15th of October. Father Charles Neale gave them also
£1,370 coming to him from his parents. Mother Bernardina
Mathews was the first Superior, and directed this little com-
munity of contemplative nuns till her happy death, June 12,
1800. By their severe rule these Carmelite nuns are re-
F Dickinson
FAC-SIMILE OP THE SIGNATURE OF MOTHER FRANCES DICKINSON.
quired to recite the Divine Office in choir, and to fast eight
months in the year ; to abstain from flesh meat, except in
case of sickness; to wear woolen clothes, and to sleep on
straw. Rigid as the rale is, delicate ladies who have entered
the community have lived to an advanced age.
The convent prospered for a time, supported mainly by
the produce of their farm ; devoted to the exercises of their
rule, guided in spiritual matters and aided in their temporal
concerns by their pious founder, Rev. Charles Neal

Note About Images