Sister Mary Catherine Philip was born Catherine Anne Bathurst (14 July 1825 – 14 December 1907) was a Roman Catholic convert, nun and Prioress. She founded a school in Belgium which became (in time)

St Dominic's Sixth Form College St Dominic's Sixth Form College is a selective Roman Catholic sixth form college on Harrow on the Hill, England founded in 1878, originally founded as a boarding school. The college was opened and initiated by Cardinal Hume. The college was aw ...

in Harrow.

Life

Bathurst was born in Wookey in Somersetshire. She was the daughter of Sir

James Bathurst Lieutenant general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Sir James Bathurst (4 May 1782 – 13 April 1850) was a British Army commander from the Bathurst family. Early life and family Bathurst was likely born in Oxford, where he was baptised at t ...

, an army officer and Lady Caroline, a daughter of 1st Earl Castle Stewart. Her grandfather was Henry Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich who was a nephew of the 1st Earl Bathurst.

Frederick Bathurst The Ven. Frederick Bathurst (7 March 1827 – 23 September 1910) was an English Anglican clergyman from the Bathurst family. He played first class cricket and he was later Archdeacon of Bedford from 1873 to 1910. Life Bathurst was the sixth ...

and Robert Bathurst (cricketer) were her brothers. Her eldest brother was Stuart Bathurst and he became a Church of England priest and

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Kibworth Beauchamp Kibworth is an area of the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, that contains two civil parishes: the villages of Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt . At the 2011 census, Kibworth Beauchamp had a population of 5,433 and Kib ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. In 1850 Stuart converted to Catholicism under the influence of John Henry Newman and he became the parish priest at Wednesbury in Staffordshire. Catherine also concerted to be a Catholic within months and she was given a Conditional baptism (to avoid giving two) by Father Brownbill SJ. She met Newman and she began a long time correspondence with him which consisted of over 80 letters. Bathurst decided on a religious life but she found a long time to find a home. She joined Elizabeth Lockhart's Sisters of Charity of the Precious Blood at Greenwich in 1852. She then tried the Sisters of Providence in Loughborough before returning to Greenwich after a year. She spent three years working at poor schools and orphanages in Birmingham. In 1861 she appeared to have found a home at

Margaret Hallahan Margaret Hallahan (23 January 1803 – 10 May 1868) was an English Catholic religious sister, foundress of the Dominican Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena (third order). Biography Born in London, Hallahan was the only child of poor Iris ...

's Dominican Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena. She took the name Sister Mary Catherine Philip in November but by April 1862 she had returned to Birmingham after her last sister became a suicide. In 1868 she was in Ghent where she agreed to found an order of Dominicans. By 1870 there was a convent and a school building in Meirelbeke with Bathurst as the Prioress. The next move was a move by the whole convent. Bathurst and her Dominican Order sisters from Ghent set up a girls' boarding school in Harrow in 1878 at the invitation of Cardinal Manning

Death and legacy

Bathurst died in

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

in 1907. In July 1979 the convent school she founded closed and the remaining nuns transferred to the Dominican convent in Stone, Staffordshire,

opened in the building that had been St Dominic's Independent Grammar School for girls.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathurst, Catherine 1825 births 1907 deaths People from Somerset Dominican nuns School founders