This is the third book excerpt blog. Specifically, it is about the founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers in Sinsinawa and the two Irish American women who led that congregation for eighty-two years (1867 to 1949).

    “Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli was born on November 4, 1806, in Milan, Italy, into a family of merchants and bankers. He rejected the idea of a family legacy built on material wealth, choosing instead to pursue a life filled with spiritual richness derived from the Word of God via Jesus Christ. He committed himself to serving as a Dominican priest and a member of the Order of Preachers. . . . In 1846, Father Mazzuchelli founded a college for men in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, located on eight hundred acres of land purchased from George Wallace Jones. In the following year, he established the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters on August 4, 1847. . . . 

     On Easter Sunday, April 8, 1860, Bridget Power’s two eldest daughters, Catherine and Anastasia, entered the novitiate period as “Sister Gertrude” and “Sister Veronica,” respectively, with the Dominican Sisters. On August 15, 1861, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and Lady Day of Harvest for the Irish, Ellen Power, at age seventeen, became a novice and was given the name “Sister Mary Emily.” . . . [In 1867], Sister Mary Emily officially became the leader, assuming the title of Prioress or Mother General. Since Mother Emily was only twenty-three years old, potentially, she could provide several years of stewardship and stability for an organization that had recently lost the leadership of a few key people. . . . Still, no one could have anticipated the longevity and quality of Mother Emily’s tenureship as the North Star . . .

    Ellen Theresa Coughlin’s exemplary record made her acceptance into the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation in September 1885 a simple formality. On August 15, 1886, she was received as a novice and given the name “Samuel.” After 1901, Sister Samuel’s role as a Dominican Sister substantially expanded . . . Following the death of Mother Emily [in 1909], Sister Samuel assumed the title of ‘Acting Mother General.’”