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| Ruins of Ursuline Convent, at Charlestown, Mass. From an old-time sketch. |
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In 1852 I was elected to the legislature.
While there I endeavored to remedy a great wrong and outrage which had been done to a Catholic educational institution of the order of St. Ursula.
This order was established in 1536, to give relief to the sick, and educate gratuitously female youth, and the merits of its work were so great that it escaped even in Europe the persecutions which there frequently visited monastic institutions.
Quite latterly the object of this mission was confined to the education of female youth, and its convents were established in America as seminaries of learning.
In 1820 such an institution was founded in Boston, and six years later was removed to Mount Benedict, a twin
hill with Bunker Hill in Charlestown.
Mount Benedict was a beautiful eminence, with a varied and most delightful prospect reaching miles on every side, and it was surrounded by a community supposed to be as intelligent and orderly as any people.
The pupils of these Ursuline sisters came for the most part from the higher and wealthier Protestant families of the State.
The academy flourished for several years, and at the time of its destruction its inmates numbered about ten nuns and forty-seven young lady pupils of tender years.
Among the illiterate and prejudiced adherents of some of the religious sects, there were circulated concerning the institution stories
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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