“So many foolish virgins”: nuns and anti-Catholicism from Maria Monk to the Know-Nothings

292 Pages·2015·2.63 MB·English

“SO MANY FOOLISH VIRGINS”: NUNS AND ANTI-CATHOLICISM FROM
MARIA MONK TO THE KNOW-NOTHINGS
_______________________________________
A Dissertation
presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate School
at the University of Missouri-Columbia
_______________________________________________________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
_____________________________________________________
by
CASSANDRA L. YACOVAZZI
Dr. John Wigger, Dissertation Supervisor
MAY 2015
© Copyright by Cassandra Yacovazzi 2015
All Rights Reserved
The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the
dissertation entitled
“SO MANY FOOLISH VIRGINS”: NUNS AND ANTI-CATHOLICISM FROM
MARIA MONK TO THE KNOW-NOTHINGS
presented by Cassandra Yacovazzi,
a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy,
and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance.
Professor John Wigger
Professor Jeffrey Pasley
Professor Catherine Rymph
Professor Steven Watts
Professor John Evelev
Professor Kathleen Cummings
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply grateful to many people for helping me as I worked on this
dissertation. Several of my colleagues read multiple chapter drafts and provided helpful
comments, suggestions, and friendship. In this regard, I would especially like to thank my
advisor Professor John Wigger who coordinated meetings with his advisees to review
drafts. Discussing chapters over good food, often at Dr. Wigger’s home or at
Shakespeare’s pizza, made the process of writing and editing both more productive and
enjoyable. It is my pleasure to thank John Wigger, Jonathan Root, Joshua Rice, Darin
Tuck, Jennifer Wiard, Hunter Hampton, Brandon Flint, Luke Schleif, and Meaghan
Collier for carefully reading chapters—despite their own busy schedules—and providing
helpful feedback. Their voices come through this dissertation every step of the way.
I am indebted to the Department of History at the University of Missouri for
granting me a dissertation fellowship for the 2013-2014 academic year. Without that time
to focus on my research and writing uninterrupted by teaching responsibilities, I would
not have been able to finish this project. The History Department also generously
awarded me a summer research grant which enabled me to visit three separate archives
and libraries in Massachusetts, New York, and Indiana, the sources from which provide
the bulk of my research. The department staff, including Nancy Taube, Patty Eggleston,
Melinda Lockwood, and Lynn Summers, provided various kinds of encouragement and
support, answering my many logistical questions and helping to make this an overall
smooth process, for which I am truly grateful.
It is my pleasure to thank the faculty and staff with the Kinder Forum on
Constitutional Democracy, especially Professors Jeffrey Pasley and Justin Dyer, for
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generously awarding me a Kinder Dissertation Fellowship for the 2014 Fall semester.
Through this fellowship I have had the opportunity not only to attend and participate in
various seminars, talks, and events sponsored by the Forum on Constitutional
Democracy, but also to focus primarily on finishing my dissertation.
At the University of Missouri Libraries, I would like to thank Delores Fisher, Senior
Library Specialist, who helped track down numerous items for me through Inter-library
Loan. Marie Concannon, Data Archivist, helped me locate Massachusetts government
documents. The University of Missouri Special Collections and Rare Books and the
Missouri Historical Society staff both offered a number of valuable resources for this
project. I would also like to thank Nancy Barthelemy, Boston Provincial Archivist for the
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur for scanning and sending me archival material. William
Kevin Cawley, Senior Archivist and Curator of Manuscripts at the Archives of the
University of Notre Dame, helped me find a number of crucial sources for this project. At
the American Antiquarian Society, Elizabeth Watts Pope and Paul Erickson guided me
through the archives and helped me find additional sources. The staff at the New York
Public Library offered gracious hospitality and suggested I look at the Order of the
United Americans records. I am thankful to Mike Whalen for sending me a private online
screener of his excellent documentary, “A Question of Habit,” which provided much
inspiration for the epilogue. Jane Behlmann, archivist at the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Carondelet provided assistance during my visit and graciously scanned materials and
even gave me a book about the order’s history. Finally, Denise P. Gallo, Provincial
Archivist of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, promptly answered
email questions helping me to piece together parts of this project.
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A number of professors in the Department of History at the University of
Missouri have provided useful advice and encouragement. Dr. Catherine Rymph and Dr.
Steven Watts offered their time and expertise in reading over my dissertation proposal.
They have read multiple dissertation abstracts in preparation for writing me letters of
recommendation. They have both been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me.
Dr. John Frymire extended helpful suggestions after reading my dissertation proposal,
helping me to consider the influence of the Reformation for my topic. Dr. Jeffrey Pasley,
of the History Department, Dr. John Evelev of the English Department, and Dr. Kathleen
Sprows Cummings, Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American
Catholicism and Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at the
University of Notre Dame, have graciously agreed to serve on my dissertation committee.
Without the moral support of friends and family, this would have been a much
more grueling process. I am thankful for my friends, especially Jonathan Root, Sarah
Lirley McCune, Claire McGraw, Naomi Kaloudis, Kate Livingston, Dan Murphy, Tim
Gibbons, Dave Dittmer, and Jenna Rice, who have provided nights out on the town,
kayaking trips, movie nights, evening walks, and Sunday dinners. I would especially like
to thank Dr. Thomas and Carolyn Lowe—my “Missouri parents”—for befriending me
and inviting me to their home for so many occasions. Without these times, my stay in
Columbia would have been a lot lonelier. My best friend, Ann Marie Romans, provided
moral support and laughter even from a distance. I am deeply thankful for the
encouragement and support provided by my mom and dad and two sisters. Just knowing
you cared and were proud of me was a constant comfort.
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My gratitude goes above all to my advisor, Dr. John Wigger. Dr. Wigger has
expertly guided this project to its final form, closely reading multiple drafts and providing
advice and counsel along the way. He has also given of his time in hosting academic and
social gatherings with his students, something that has allowed for a comradery so
essential for an enjoyable experience in a doctoral program. His encouragement in talking
about my dissertation as my future “book” has given me a confidence I did not used to
have. Thank you.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1
The American Campaign Against Convents
2. CHAPTER ONE .....................................................................................................28
An Escaped Nun: Maria Monk and Her Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu
3. CHAPTER TWO....................................................................................................69
Downfall of Babylon: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent and the Birth of
the Convent Narrative
4. CHAPTER THREE...............................................................................................114
Textbook Popery: Convent Schools, Bible Wars, and the Nation’s Children
5. CHAPTER FOUR.................................................................................................150
Beneath the Façade: Convent Tales, City Mysteries, and the Rise of Dark Lantern
Politics
6. CHAPTER FIVE...................................................................................................186
The Nunnery Sleuths: Convent Investigations and the Downfall of the Know-
Nothing Party
7. EPILOGUE...........................................................................................................222
Solving a Problem Like Maria Monk: Imagining Sisters from Maria Monk to Late
Night Catechism
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………261
VITA……………………………………………………………………………………284
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INTRODUCTION

MARIA MONK AND THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGN AGAINST CONVENTS

Women are ashamed to admit this, but Scripture and experience show that only one
woman in thousands has the God-given gift to maintain pure chastity. Rather, a woman is
not the master of herself. God fashioned her body so that she should be with a man, to
have and to rear children.
–Martin Luther

It remains to be seen…whether the pollutions which have defiled the convents of the old
world, can exist amid the purity of our own moral atmosphere…on the soil consecrated
as the home of freedom and the refuge of the oppressed. To us Americans, the inquiry is a
deeply interesting one. –William McGavin, The Protestant (1833)

On March 5, 1836 six women boarded the steamer George Collier in New
Orleans and set off for St. Louis, Missouri. After traveling for three months across the
Atlantic, during which the band of sisters faced illness and a violent storm, the Mississippi
River would likely have appeared a welcomed and calm final passage. But the Sisters of
St. Joseph of Carondelet felt unwelcomed and afraid in this new terrain, so different from
Lyon, France from where they came, where their neighbors knew them and held them in
high esteem. They donned civilian clothing at the advice of the Ursuline Sisters of New
Orleans with whom they stayed when they first arrived on American soil. The Ursulines
warned of hecklers and worse if the women dared where their habits in public, if they did
not disguise themselves to fit in. The warnings of the superior before the trip, that the
sisters in a sense would be exiles in this new land, likely echoed in the passengers’
thoughts as their little steamer charged up the Mississippi.
Two weeks later, the sisters reached their destination. Even though they had been
briefed on the poverty of the relatively new St. Louis diocese, the sisters likely felt ill-
equipped for their new pioneer lifestyle in this distinctly Protestant land. Among them,
1
the oldest was thirty and the youngest twenty-one. Nevertheless, they quickly set about
building their own cottage, learning English, and training to work with the deaf and mute,
for which Bishop Joseph Rosati had requested their assistance. The Sisters of St. Joseph
of Carondelet would go on to form the St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf, St. Joseph’s
Academy, and Fontbonne College (now Fontbonne University), but their early experience
in America would be one marked by anti-convent propaganda, convent burnings, and
repeated nativist calls for banning nuns in the land of the free.1

When Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the All Saints Church door
in Wittenberg, he initiated a sweeping revolution not only in Christian faith and practice
but also in gender roles. Luther’s theology rejected chastity and the nun’s life as the ideal
role for women, believing celibacy to be nearly impossible for both men and women. In
its place Luther upheld the household, rather than the monastery, as the cornerstone of
society. This represented a dramatic shift from one of the central expressions of
Catholicism, especially for women. While the image of Mary had for centuries embodied
virginal apostolic religiosity for Catholics, Luther’s Protestantism and subsequent
Reformation theology referred to Mary as the ideal wife and mother, an embodiment of
domestic obedience. In Luther’s mind, this exemplified both the true Christian role and
liberation from a supposedly oppressive system. Yet he merely replaced one set of walls
with another, and in the meantime removed the only vocational option other than
marriage open to women at the time.2

1 Sister Dolorita Maria Dougherty, C. S. J. et al., Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (St. Louis: B. Herder
Book Co., 1966), 51-102.
2 Amy Leonard, Nails in the Wall: Catholic Nuns in Reformation Germany (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 2005), 1-2; see also Beth Kreitzer, Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary
2