Mother Angela Gillespie (1824-1887)

Today marks the death of Mother Angela Gillespie (1824-1887), first Mother Superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Born Eliza Gillespie in Indiana, she graduated from Visitation Academy in Washington, D.C., before teaching school. In 1853 she joined the Sisters of the Holy Cross, a community founded in France. In 1855 she was assigned charge of St. Mary’s Academy in Notre Dame, Indiana (now St. Mary’s College). During the Civil War, she oversaw some eighty sisters assigned to work in Union military hospitals. A group of them who served aboard the hospital ship Red Rover are honored as the first Navy nurses. In 1869 the Indiana sisters broke from the French motherhouse to form an autonomous congregation, with Mother Angela as the superior. Under her leadership the community expanded its educational and healthcare apostolates.