Quote of the day, 4 July: Mother Teresa Sewall
On February 11th, 1878, the community was deprived by death of the edification it had for so many years received from Mother Teresa of Jesus [Juliana Sewall]. This venerable religious, then in her 81st year, had spent sixty-one years in religion, and it was time that the day of rest should finally dawn, for she had borne the heat and burden of a long day on earth.
The reader no doubt remembers the account we gave of Mother Teresa’s early life and entrance into religion. Many years had passed, and many changes taken place since then.
Professed on old Mount Carmel in Charles County [Port Tobacco, Maryland], she had lived with Mother Clare Joseph and Sister M. Aloysia, two of the foundresses, and had spent a few years under the direction of Father Charles Neale. She had, since then, shared all the vicissitudes of her order in Baltimore. […]
She was a near relative of Francis Scott Key, author of The Star-Spangled Banner, and she had strongly imbibed the patriotic spirit of her family. She always impressed it as a duty upon the young religious to pray for the political, social and religious welfare of the country.
The celebration of the centennial anniversary of American Independence was a great joy to her heart, and she took much pleasure at the time in singing The Star-Spangled Banner and in relating little anecdotes of revolutionary days, which she had heard from her father [Clement Sewall], who, as we have seen, had been so intimately connected with General Washington.
Charles Warren Currier
Chapter XXX, Mother Teresa’s death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ba3X4XaWw
Currier, C 1890, Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States, J. Murphy, Baltimore.
Featured image: The Washington Family by Edward Savage, 1789–1796. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Public domain.
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Do you make a point of attending Mass on your country’s national holidays to pray for your nation?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.
#CarmelInAmerica #CarmelOfBaltimore #GeneralGeorgeWashington #JulianaSewall #MotherTeresaOfJesus #StarSpangledBanner
