Abstract
Betty Ann McNeil describes the journals of two of the very first Sisters of Charity, Cecilia Maria O’Conway and Rosetta (Rose) Landry White, who knew Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and her family. Cecilia was the first to join Elizabeth in Baltimore as a Sister of Charity in early December 1808 at age twenty-one. McNeil tells us, “Cecilia taught at St. Joseph’s School until missioned to Philadelphia (1814) and New York (1817)” before withdrawing from the Sisters of Charity in 1823. At age twenty-five, Rose joined Elizabeth in late June 1809 and served as mother of the Sisters of Charity after Elizabeth died. She had a second term as mother in the 1830s. McNeil draws parallels and contrasts between the memoirs and the styles in which they are written. Cecilia confined herself to factual notes, but about events that she both did and did not witness. Rose is more discursive and narrates events she experienced. The journals tell us about Elizabeth’s life, her family life, and the early life of the religious community she founded. Each memoir is corroborated by Elizabeth’s correspondence and by other early records of the Sisters of Charity.