{"id":204,"date":"2011-02-08T08:06:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T08:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mcnamarasblog\/2011\/02\/%e2%80%9cwhat-can-a-woman-do%e2%80%9d-mother-xavier-ross-1813-1895-and-the-sisters-of-charity-of-leavenworth\/"},"modified":"2011-02-08T08:06:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T08:06:00","slug":"%e2%80%9cwhat-can-a-woman-do%e2%80%9d-mother-xavier-ross-1813-1895-and-the-sisters-of-charity-of-leavenworth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mcnamarasblog\/2011\/02\/%e2%80%9cwhat-can-a-woman-do%e2%80%9d-mother-xavier-ross-1813-1895-and-the-sisters-of-charity-of-leavenworth.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat Can a Woman Do?\u201d: Mother Xavier Ross (1813-1895) and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As the Civil War approached, 1850\u2019s Kansas was center-stage for the brewing conflict. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions battled it out for control of the state with knives, guns, even with cannons. Located on the banks of the Missouri River, Leavenworth was a bustling city where, one historian writes, \u201crobberies, stabbings, lynchings, hangings, tarrings and featherings were not at all uncommon.\u201d In short, it was a pretty rough place.<\/p>\n

Not much surprised its citizens, a hardened lot. But on the morning of November 11, 1858, they witnessed a unique sight that did. A small group of women all dressed alike in long black robes and bonnets, stepped off a boat at the landing. They were the first Catholic nuns most of them had ever seen. The Sisters of Charity had come to \u201cBleeding Kansas.\u201d<\/p>\n

They arrived with almost nothing. But in time they created a network of schools, hospitals, and orphanages stretching across the West from New Mexico to Montana. Their leader, Mother Xavier Ross (1813-1895), was a small woman, barely five feet tall and hard of hearing. But she was a formidable character who, a contemporary wrote, possessed \u201cthe will of a winner.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Mother Xavier Ross, S.C.L. (1813-1895) <\/em><\/div>\n

Born Ann Ross in Cincinnati, her father was a Methodist preacher who doted on her. But he was highly displeased with his teenage daughter when she showed an interest in the institution he despised most. It started after she visited a local Catholic church with a friend. After reading everything she could find on the subject, she told her father she wanted to convert, \u201cto do something for God and souls.\u201d Her father answered, \u201cWhat can a woman do?\u201d <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, she became a Catholic, and when she was nineteen, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, a religious community based in Kentucky. Newcomers received a new name that denoted the change in their lives. Ann was renamed Xavier, for the sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary. Her father never forgave her. He sent her a lock of his now-gray hair with the note, \u201cYou have done this.\u201d <\/p>\n

As she taught school in Kentucky, her leadership skills emerged. In 1851, when the Bishop of Nashville asked for Sisters, she was sent there as mother superior. The Sisters didn\u2019t know that the priest assigned to help them used his parishioners\u2019 money to purchase their buildings. When he left unexpectedly, people demanded their money back. The bishop refused to honor the debt, forcing the Sisters to sell nearly everything they had. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
This photograph, which probably dates back to the 1880\u2019s, shows the school the Sisters opened for African-American children in Topeka, Kansas. <\/em><\/div>\n

By then, Mother Ross had her fill of Nashville. A priest friend suggested contacting Bishop John B. Mi\u00e8ge, whose cathedral was a small wood-frame building in Leavenworth. He invited them to come, and thus began the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. Mother Ross admitted that their original housing was \u201cperhaps not exactly gorgeous.\u201d Soon after their arrival, they started teaching. In March 1859, they opened St. Mary\u2019s Academy on Kickapoo Street (now the University of St. Mary). Soon a novitiate (where new Sisters, called novices, were trained) opened. Novices literally drew their religious names from a hat.<\/p>\n

Within a few years they opened orphanages and hospitals. In 1864, they opened St. John\u2019s, Kansas\u2019 first private hospital. In Topeka, they opened an orphanage for African-American children. Mother Ross frequently reminded her Sisters, \u201cAlways be good to the orphans!\u201d (The nuns recalled that she never spoke to them \u201cin a tone of command.\u201d) <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Sister Joanna Brunner, S.C.L., was the first trained nurse to work in Kansas. Later she oversaw the community\u2019s work in Wyoming.<\/em><\/div>\n

She mixed a sharp business sense with a strong faith. One of her favorite maxims was \u201cTrust in God, and beg for funds.\u201d On one occasion, she had the Sisters pray non-stop vigils in the chapel while she negotiated a bank loan. They traveled widely on fundraising trips. Once they approached a lawyer who wrote them a large check because, he said, nuns had looked after him when he was \u201ca penniless boy,\u201d with \u201cas much care as if I were a millionaire.\u201d <\/p>\n

In time the Sisters received requests from throughout the West. They traveled by stagecoach through Indian territory, sometimes at risk to their lives. The schools and hospitals they founded in Montana and Wyoming, the orphanages in Colorado, and a sanitarium in New Mexico were among the very first the people in those areas ever saw. Mother Ross encouraged initiative: \u201cIf you see anything that needs to be done, do it! Don\u2019t wait to be asked or told.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0The Sisters\u2019 orphanage in Denver, as seen in\u00a0the 1890\u2019s.\u00a0<\/em>\n<\/div>\n

Wherever they went, they made a difference. A dying African-American woman, rescued from a brutal winter, told one Sister, \u201cIf you ain\u2019t saved, I don\u2019t know who is!\u201d A young Protestant man in one of their hospitals was asked if he wanted a minister. \u201cNo,\u201d he said, \u201cSister Mary Lawrence can pray over me just as good.\u201d A prisoner about to be hung for murder promised to good for them in heaven, since he couldn\u2019t repay them on earth. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
St. Vincent\u2019s Academy, Helena, Montana, was among the first schools in the State. <\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Mother Ross traveled widely, but she especially loved the Kansas plains. In later years she gave retreats that mixed traditional Catholic wisdom with American practicality. She told retreatants, for example, \u201cAlways remember that every day is a new year. We needn\u2019t wait for the first of January.\u201d On April 2, 1895, after sixty-three years a nun, Mother Ross died at the motherhouse she had built. By then, her community had over three hundred Sisters. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
The Motherhouse as seen at the time of Mother Ross\u2019 death in 1895.<\/em><\/div>\n

Women religious are Catholic America\u2019s unsung heroes. Mother Ross is but one example. Many were the first female college presidents, hospital administrators and social workers. Catholics and non-Catholics alike admired their determination, ability and compassion. One western newspaper said of a group of nuns who nursed the sick during a local epidemic: \u201cThe idea of danger never seems to have occurred to these noble women; self was lost sight of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can a woman do?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Civil War approached, 1850\u2019s Kansas was center-stage for the brewing conflict. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions battled it out for control of the state with knives, guns, even with cannons. Located on the banks of the Missouri River, Leavenworth was a bustling city where, one historian writes, \u201crobberies, stabbings, lynchings, hangings, tarrings and featherings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1042,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cWhat Can a Woman Do?\u201d: Mother Xavier Ross (1813-1895) and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the Civil War approached, 1850\u2019s Kansas was center-stage for the brewing conflict. 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