Euphemia Blenkinsop (April 18, 1816 – March 18, 1887), born Catherine Blenkinsop, also known as Mother Euphemia, was an Irish-born American religious sister and teacher, and ''visitatrix'' (provincial leader) of the Daughters of Charity in the United States, from 1866 to her death in 1887.

Early life

Catherine Blenkinsop was born April 18, 1816, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, the daughter of Peter J. Blenkinsop and Mary Kelly Blenkinsop. Her father ran a Catholic publishing house and bookstore in Baltimore. Her maternal uncle was Archbishop

Oliver Kelly Oliver Kelly or O'Kelly (1777–1834) was an Irish clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the Archbishop of Tuam from 1815 to 1834. Born in 1777 in Curraghmore, near Ballinasloe in County Galway, educated at Lawrence Duffy's Sc ...

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

. One of her brothers, Peter J. Blenkinsop, became a Jesuit priest and college president. Her other brother, William Aloysius Blenkinsop, also became a priest. The Blenkinsop family immigrated to the United States in 1826. In 1831, Catherine Blenkinsop entered the

Sisters of Charity Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some ''Sisters of Charity'' communities refer to the Vincentian tradition alone, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (whose sisters are also of ...

community in

Emmitsburg, Maryland Emmitsburg is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States, south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Founded in 1785, Emmitsburg is the home of Mount St. Mary's University. The town has two Catholic pilgrim ...

Sisters of Charity

As Sister Catherine Euphemia, she taught in Roman Catholic schools in New York City and Baltimore for more than twenty years. She was a member of the order when it united with the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1850. In 1866, she succeeded her mentor Mother Ann Simeon as visitatrix of the Daughters of Charity in the United States, and mother superior of the order's Mother House, St. Joseph's Sisterhood, in Emmitsburg. She was the head of the order in 1885 when a kitchen fire badly damaged two of the buildings on their campus.

During the Civil War

During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, the Daughters of Charity worked as nurses, treating wounded soldiers. "The soldiers asked one another, 'How is it that the sisters do not tremble?'", Blenkinsop wrote in an 1862 report. "Others asked the sisters what we should do if the enemy should reach us in triumph! 'We should remain at our post!'" Sister Euphemia was appointed to represent the order's leadership in the American South. Because written communication was difficult in wartime, she was sent in person to visit Daughters of Charity congregations in Confederate territory, at some personal risk. She spent Christmas Day, 1863, in New Orleans.

Personal life and legacy

Mother Euphemia's failing health was announced by the order in dramatic terms: "A sorrow is slowly approaching, as the Grim Destroyer, with stealthy steps, draws nearer and nearer to the beloved Mother's couch." She died March 18, 1887, in Emmitsburg. In 1899, St. Euphemia's School and Sisters' House in Emmitsburg was named for her patron saint, in her memory. St. Euphemia's School closed in 1956. but the building was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1984.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blenkinsop, Euphemia 1816 births 1887 deaths People from Emmitsburg, Maryland Daughters and Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul