Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

Raised as the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, she spent much of her childhood in Europe and later became a writer in her own right. Her life changed profoundly after personal tragedy, including the death of her only child, and she eventually entered the Catholic Church.

In the 1890s, she began caring for people with incurable cancer who were poor and often had nowhere else to go. That work led her to found a religious community, later known as the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, dedicated to offering free care to the terminally ill.

She became known in religious life as Mother Mary Alphonsa and is remembered for combining literary sensitivity with determined, hands-on service. Today, she stands out as both a daughter of a major American author and a woman who built a lasting charitable mission of her own.