Catherine Spalding

51

Catherine Spalding : biography

December 23, 1793 – March 20, 1858

One such errand to a destitute family occasioned Catherine Spalding’s final illness. She contracted pneumonia and died on March 20, 1858. Her legacy is embodied in her Sisters, which is international now in membership and in ministries of education, care of the sick, impoverished, and orphan, and in advocacy groups for social justice in five nations of North America, Asia, and Africa. The decisive word is, “If Mother Catherine were here, she would go.” Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Archives

Additional Reading

  • Coon, Margaret Maria, SCN. Her Spirit Lives. Nazareth, KY, 2007.
  • Doyle, Mary Ellen, SCN. Pioneer Spirit: Catherine Spalding, Sister of Charity of Nazareth. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2006.
  • Schaunger, J. Herman. “Catherine Spaulding,” in Notable American Women, Volume Three. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
  • Spillane, James Maria, SCN. Kentucky Spring. Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, 1968. For middle and high school age.

Category:1793 births Category:1858 deaths Category:American Roman Catholics Category:People from Charles County, Maryland

Legacy

Under her leadership, schools and hospitals in Kentucky were founded, including Nazareth Academy (1814), St. Vincent’s Academy (1820), St. Catherine’s Academy – Lexington (1823), Presentation Academy (1831), St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum (1832), St. Joseph’s Hospital (1836), and St. Francis’ School at Owensboro (1850).

Spalding University in Louisville is named after her.

Early life

Catherine Spalding was born in Charles County, Maryland; her parents brought her at about age four to a pioneer Catholic enclave in Nelson County, Kentucky. There her mother soon died; her father incurred heavy debts and deserted both financial obligations and family. Her aunt and uncle, Thomas and Elizabeth Spalding Elder, raised the five Spalding children with ten children of their own. At sixteen, Catherine went to live with her cousins, Richard and Clementina Elder Clark for three years until she joined the newly founded Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN). From the Elders and the Clarks, Catherine gained a stable home life, religious faith, ability to bear losses and hardship, and yet find trust and joy, the skills for pioneer homemaking and health care, and the basics of education. She also gained her passion to care for other children orphaned by death or desertion, Doyle