A SINGULAR CHAPTER OF CATHOLIC AMERICAN HISTORY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 371, 28 May 1880, Page 19

A SINGULAR CHAPTER OF CATHOLIC AMERICAN HISTORY.

Ok Tuesday the 2nd instant, one of the remarkable amongst the many remarkable women who figure in the annals of this venerable Institution, Miss Anne Abigail Barber, in religion Mother St. Francis Xavier, departed this life at the allotted span of three-score years and ten, after having served her Divine Master in many capacities within the cloister, as a professed daughter of St. Angela, for the long space of fifty-two years. It was not alone in her powerful intellect, her love of study, nor yet her great aptitude in conveying to her young charges the result of those studies— a duty which failing health only too soon obliged her to relinquish — that she was remarkable ; she also stands forth as a prominent figure in a family history possibly unparalled, at all events, rarely excelled in the history of Holy Church ; as witness the following sketch, for which the writer is indebted to the facile pen of a venerable lady who has largely contributed to that valuable work, Histoire dv Monastere, itself not only what it professes to be, but also a valuable compendium of the history of early Canada. Born in the State of New Hampshire, in 1811, Anne Abigail was the second eldest daughter of an Episcopal Minister, Reverend Virgil Horace Barber, whose father had also received the ordination given in the same church. Her mother, Miss Booth, was a person of rare endowments who studied the Greek and Latin classics, and spent all her leisure moments reading, with her husband, the profound and beautiful writings of the Fathers of the Church, particularly those of St. Cyprian. Thus, both husband and wife became well versed in Catholic doctrine, and equally desirous of embracing it ; but what was still more extraordinary, they had a mutual desire to follow the Evangelical counsels Their young family consisted of four daughters and one son at the period alluded to, and Mr. Barber, who had removed to New York, was there engaged as Professor in the University. Here, after many severe trials, Mr. Barber relinquished his brilliant position to become an humble member of the Society of Jesus, and Mrs. Barber entered the Visitation Convent in Georgetown, taking with her the three eldest daughters, whose education she continued to superintend, whilst the youngest was kindly taken in charge by Mrs. Fenwick, Mother of the venerable bishop of that name. The whole family had previously been received into the Church by Bishop Cheverus in 1817, but it was not until the 2nd of February, 1820 — Feast of the purification of ths B. V. M. — on Mr. Barber's return from Rome, that these devoted converts pronounced their religious vows together in the Convent Chapel at Georgetown. A few years later young Samuel Barber joined his father at the Jesuit's College, and three of the daughters became Ursulines. Mary, who pronounced her vows in 1828, and died at the monastery in Quebec on the 9th May, 1848, a refugee from the hatred of the Native American party when they so bravely attacked a lot of inoffensive and defenceless women in their quiet convent home in Charlestown, Mass., which they reduced to ashes ; Anne, the subject of the present notice, and Susan, who made her profession in the monastery at Three Rivers in 1831, and died there in 1837. Mrs. Barber, who took the name of Sister Mary Austin, died at the Visitation Convent in 1860, and her son, Father Samuel, died about the year 1850. Father Barber, himself, died in 1847 at the College of Georgetown, after having been Pastor of Claremont, N. H., where he spent several years and built the first Catholic church ; it was there also that his own aged father became a Catholic, entered holy orders, and died a Deacon. Mother Josephine Barber is a professed nun of the Visitation order, and the only surviving member of this family, of whom it may in all troth be said — the Hand of God was there ! — Catliolie Review.