Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

Now alone, Rose Hawthorne sought to give an evangelical and profound meaning to her existence. She was deeply moved by the tragic fate of poor patients suffering from incurable cancer. At the end of the 19th century, cancer was widely feared and wrongly considered a contagious disease. New York hospitals systematically rejected incurable patients, leaving the most destitute to die in abandonment and squalor, particularly in the almshouses of Blackwell's Island.

In 1896, Rose underwent three months of nursing training at the New York Cancer Hospital. She then moved into modest lodgings in Manhattan's Lower East Side to care for the indigent sick herself, in their homes. In 1899, joined by her friend Alice Huber, she opened a more spacious refuge, St. Rose's Free Home for Incurable Cancer.

On December 8, 1900, with the approval of the Archbishop of New York, Most Reverend Michael Augustine Corrigan, Rose officially founded a new religious congregation: the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer, attached to the Dominican Third Order and known today as the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Congregation of St. Rose of Lima. Rose took the Dominican habit and the religious name Mother Mary Alphonsa, while Alice Huber became Sister Mary Rose.

In 1901, in order to offer a more peaceful and dignified living environment to her patients, Mother Mary Alphonsa acquired a property in Hawthorne, New York, from French Dominican fathers who were returning to their country. This place became the Rosary Hill Home, which established itself as the motherhouse of the congregation and a center for free palliative care.

The absolute rule of the institute, still in effect, is to offer care entirely free of charge to incurable cancer patients, without distinction of race or religion. The congregation categorically refuses any payment from patients, their families, or the State (notably public aid such as Medicare or Medicaid), living solely on donations and the manual labor of the sisters.

Mother Mary Alphonsa's life of heroic dedication to the most rejected sick inspired deep admiration during her lifetime and after her death, which occurred on July 9, 1926.

In 2003, Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York, officially opened her cause for beatification and canonization. In 2013, the Vatican issued a decree of validity concerning the diocesan inquiry, thus allowing the cause to be transmitted to Rome to be studied by the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints.

On March 14, 2024, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (Mother Mary Alphonsa), thereby conferring upon her the status of Venerable.

The cause is currently ongoing. For her beatification to be pronounced, a miracle attributed to her intercession must be formally recognized by the Holy See.

The spirituality of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop rests upon a harmonious union between a life of intense contemplative prayer (marked by the liturgy and Eucharistic adoration) and active service to those who suffer most. She saw Christ Himself in the person of every patient afflicted with incurable cancer, striving to restore their human and spiritual dignity in their final moments. Her work anticipated the modern development of palliative care and end-of-life accompaniment by several decades.

Today, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne faithfully perpetuate this charism of absolute charity and total gratuitousness at Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne (New York) as well as in their other care facilities in the United States.