Praying for a nation

When considering the intersection of United States history and the Discalced Carmelite Order, there is one figure who stands out. Currier’s history of Carmel in America provides a fascinating insight into the life of one Mother Teresa of Jesus, a Discalced Carmelite nun from the Carmel of Baltimore (Juliana Sewall, 1799 – 1878).

She was a near relative of Francis Scott Key, author of the ” Star-Spangled Banner,” and she had strongly imbibed the patriotic spirit of her family. She always impressed it as a duty upon the young religious to pray for the political, social and religious welfare of the country. The celebration of the centennial anniversary of American Independence was a great joy to her heart, and she took much pleasure at the time in singing the Star-Spangled Banner and in relating little anecdotes of revolutionary days, which she had heard from her father, who, as we have seen, had been so intimately connected with General Washington. [1] [Clement Sewall was one of Gen. Washington’s staff officers]

She took much pleasure at the time in singing the Star-Spangled Banner and in relating little anecdotes of revolutionary days…

The Saturday morning edition of The Baltimore Sun on March 29, 1873, devotes several column inches to a notice concerning the “removal of the Carmelite nuns” to a newly constructed monastery at the intersection of Biddle and Caroline Streets in Baltimore. Of notable mention is “the daughter of Clement Sewell, a distinguished citizen of Georgetown, who was on intimate terms with General George Washington.”

[1] Currier, Charles. Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States (pp. 303-304)