Venerable Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

Born: May 30, 1851
Death: July 9, 1926
Cause for Canonization Opened: 
Declared Venerable: 

Venerable Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, born in Massachusetts in 1851, was the daughter of the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter. Born into a prestigious family, she received a well-rounded education and lived in England, Europe, and the United States throughout her upbringing as her father was appointed to serve as the U.S. consul to England. Her father passed away when she was 13, prompting a whole family move to Germany to conserve finances. There, Rose met and in 1871 married George Parsons Lathrop, American expat, poet, and novelist. They settled in Connecticut where Rose also wrote poetry and published her own collection Along the Shore. The couple had one son, Francis, who died from diphtheria at age 5 in 1881. Both Rose and her husband converted to Catholicism in 1891 and then split due to George’s alcoholism in 1895. Rose went on to study nursing at New York Cancer Hospital and ministered to the “cancerous poor” of New York’s Lower East Side. Throughout this time, Rose wrote a publication called “Christ’s Poor,” which shared with the public what she was doing and why. Together with her friend Alice Huber — who was drawn to her by her writing and joined her in her caring for the cancer patients — Rose became a Third Order Dominican and opened St. Rose’s Free Home for Incurable Cancer in 1899. The following year, the Archbishop of New York approved the Hawthorne Dominicans with Rose, now Mother Mary Alphonsa, as superior. The order’s mission was “to fit its members for the Beatific vision,” through service of God and others. She lived her consecrated life as one of service, passing quietly in 1926 at age 75.

Read her life of service and dedication to the poor here. 

Prayer for the Canonization of Venerable Rose Hawthorne Lathrop