Lalor, Teresa, Mother
LALOR, TERESA, MOTHER
Foundress of the American Visitandines; b. Ballyragget, County Kilkenny, Ireland, c. 1769; d. Washington, D.C., Sept. 9, 1846. While on a visit to Philadelphia, Pa., in 1797, Alice Lalor and two other young women cooperated with Rev. Leonard Neale in founding what was to become the first American house of the visitation nuns. In 1799, when Neale was transferred to Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), they followed. They lodged first with a group of refugee Poor Clare nuns, but they later moved into their own quarters and adopted a quasi-Jesuit rule given them by Neale. "The Pious Ladies," as they were known, obtained the Visitation rule, and Mother Teresa took her vows on Dec. 28, 1816. The free school for girls that she established, as well as the sister-hood itself, prospered after initial difficulties. The school assumed a national character, and the sisterhood expanded to Mobile, Ala., in 1832 and to Baltimore, Md., in 1837. After almost 20 years as superior, Mother Teresa relinquished her office in 1819 and spent her remaining days in the ranks of her community.
Bibliography: j. b. code, Great American Foundresses (New York 1929). g. p. and r. h. lathrop, A Story of Courage: Annals of the Georgetown Convent of the Visitation (Cambridge, Mass.1895).
[j. b. code]