Hawthorne Dominican Sister Servant of the Poor

Hawthorne Dominican Sister –  Sister Mary Peregrine of Christ’s Tears, O.P.                                                                                    Dominican Sister of Saint Rose of Lima                                                                                   “Servant of the Poor for the Relief of Incurable Cancer” 

Foundress:  Servant of God, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop                                                                                             (Mother Mary Alphonsa, O.P.)  –   “Mother of the Modern Hospice Movement”              † Rose was a convert to Catholicism and the daughter of the great American author,                      Nathaniel Hawthorne, who gave us the classic literary work, The Scarlett Letter.  †

Place:  New York City, (The lower East Side of Manhattan) New York

Year:  1900 A.D.

Her Charism:  The Catholic Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life and the redemptive nature of suffering is especially comforting to this Sister.  Devoted to the Passion of Christ, she places herself at the Foot of the Cross alongside Our Blessed Mother.  This Sister is truly a merciful servant of the relief of incurable cancer where there is no turn of the tide and one watches the physical disfigurement of a person and the ebbing of life day after day.  Her deepest desire is to fit herself and all the members of her religious Community to the Beatific Vision.  Balancing the two dimensions of vibrant Dominican life – active and contemplative – this Sister preaches and serves God’s people with radical joy and gives all she has to bring consolation and the healing spirit of Christ to the cancerous poor with tender compassion while asking nothing in return.