Georgetown Visitation Monastery
38°54′37″N 77°04′16″W / 38.9103°N 77.0712°W
Monastery of the Visitation, Georgetown | |
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Location | |
Country | United States |
The Monastery of the Visitation, Georgetown is a monastery of the
History
Founding
This monastery was founded by
The return of the fever in 1797-8 broke up their house, and Neale having been made president of
Opening of the school
The school was opened, 24 June 1799. The first pupil was Anna Smith, the first novice Aloysia Neale. Their ranks were immediately recruited, their pupils multiplied, and in 1802 the school was developed into an academy, (now known as Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School). In 1804 the Poor Clares returned to France; Bishop Neale and his brother Francis Neale bought their property, furniture, and books, and it was among the last that the Rules of the Visitation were discovered in 1812, after being vainly sought for years by the bishop, for Annecy had been swept away in the Terror.[2]
No enclosure was observed at first and the ladies were called Mistress or Madam until 1816 when Archbishop Neale obtained from
Six months later, Archbishop Neale died, but he had appointed Joseph Picot de Limoëlan , a Chouan who was involved in the plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, of Charleston, South Carolina, as director of the community. He arrived on 13 January 1818 and devoted his life to his new charge. He sold his estate in Brittany and gave the proceeds, as well as his French pension, to building a new chapel for the sisters. Cloriviere himself taught French at the academy, which served to increase enrollment. He asked and obtained from his friend Charles X of France an altar-piece, and by every means in his power helped the sisters in their poor school - the first free school in the District of Columbia.[3][4][5]
Catharine Rigden broke ground for the chapel, the symbolic window of which was given by a lady in South Carolina. This was the first chapel of the Sacred Heart in the United States. In 1819 the first prospectus was issued over the signatures of Henrietta Brent, Jerusha Barber, and Joseph de Cloriviere; in 1823 a new academy was built, and in 1829 three European sisters arrived.
After Teresa Lalor
On 9 September 1846, Teresa Lalor died, having seen her daughters established at Kaskaskia, Mobile, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Brooklyn. In 1872-3 a new academy building was erected, and in 1899–1900, after a fire, this was enlarged.
Archbishop Neale, Joseph de Cloriviere, Lalor, Sister Joanna,
At Winfield Scott's request the academy was exempted from seizure for hospital purposes during the American Civil War. His daughter Virginia (May Emmanuel), who was a Visitation nun, is buried in the cemetery.
Slavery
During the 19th century, the sisters owned some 121 African Americans as slaves.[6]
Notable alumni
- Cornelia Jane Matthews Jordan(1830–1898), poet
- Harriet Monroe (1860-1936), poet, editor
- Cora Stuart Wheeler (1852–1897), poet, author
References
- ^ Clarke, Richard Henry. "Most Rev. Leonard Neale, D.D.", Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States, Vol. 1, P. O'Shea, 1872
- ^ a b c Dorsey, Ella Loraine. "The Visitation Convent, Georgetown." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 14 January 2019
- ^ Lathrop, George Parsons; Lathrop, Rose Hawthorne (1894). A Story of Courage: Annals of the Georgetown Convent of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Riverside Press.
- ^ "Historique du premier attentat à la voiture piégée". AfVT – Association française des Victimes du Terrorisme (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^ Kelly, John (July 20, 2019). "Why is a French nobleman who tried to blow up Napoleon buried in Georgetown?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^ "The History of Enslaved People at Visitation - Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School". www.visi.org. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "The Visitation Convent, Georgetown". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.