(1793-1858)
Born in Charles county, Maryland, on December 23, 1793, Catherine Spalding was
taken to frontier Kentucky by her widowed mother
about 1799. She was later orphaned
and reared by relatives. In December 1812 the Reverend (later Bishop) John David
announced his plan to establish a Catholic teaching sisterhood to serve the
frontier region, and the next month Catherine Spalding was one of the first
three young women to
answer his call. In 1813 she was elected superior of the Sisters of Charity of
Nazareth, which was established at St. Thomas's, near Bardstown, Kentucky. The
sisters performed their own domestic and farm work, made clothing for the
students of nearby St. Thomas's Seminary, visited the sick, and did other
religious work. In 1814 they opened Nazareth Academy.
The sisters took their first vows in 1816, following which Mother Catherine
was reelected superior. She stepped down in 1819 but remained the guiding force
of the group, and she served again as superior from 1824 to 1831, from 1838 to
1844, and from 1850 to 1856. During that time the sisters established a school
in Bardstown in 1819, St. Vincent's Academy in Union County, Kentucky, in 1820,
a school in Scott County (later St. Catherine's Academy, Lexington) in 1823, a
school (now Presentation Academy) in Louisville in 1831, St. Vincent's Orphan
Asylum in Louisville in 1832, a hospital (now St. Joseph's) in Louisville in
1836, and the School of St. Frances at Owensboro in 1850. In 1824 the original
convent moved to a new site in what is now Nazareth, Kentucky, and in 1829 the
order's original Nazareth Academy received a state charter as the Nazareth
Literary and Benevolent Institution. Between terms as superior, Mother Catherine
devoted herself to her institutions in Louisville, especially St. Vincent's
Orphan Asylum. By the time of her death in Nazareth, Kentucky, on March 20,
1858, the order had grown to 145 sisters in 16 convents.
1793-1858)
Born in Charles county, Maryland, on December 23, 1793, Catherine Spalding was
taken to frontier Kentucky by her widowed mother
about 1799. She was later orphaned
and reared by relatives. In December 1812 the Reverend (later Bishop) John David
announced his plan to establish a Catholic teaching sisterhood to serve the
frontier region, and the next month Catherine Spalding was one of the first
three young women to
answer his call. In 1813 she was elected superior of the Sisters of Charity of
Nazareth, which was established at St. Thomas's, near Bardstown, Kentucky. The
sisters performed their own domestic and farm work, made clothing for the
students of nearby St. Thomas's Seminary, visited the sick, and did other
religious work. In 1814 they opened Nazareth Academy.
