Mary Rose Columba Adams (21 March 1832 — 30 December 1891), born Sophia Charlotte Louisa Adams, was an English

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Dominican prioress, recognized as a founder of St Dominic's Priory and the Church of Perpetual Adoration in

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. History Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...

, Australia.

Early life

Adams was born to Anglican parents, James Smith Adams and the former Emma Elizabeth McTaggart, in

Woodchester Woodchester is a Gloucestershire village in the Nailsworth (or Woodchester) Valley, a valley in the South Cotswolds in England, running southwards from Stroud along the A46 road to Nailsworth. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. Her parents met and married in India. Her mother died in 1843, and her father in 1860. At age 19 Sophia Adams converted to Roman Catholicism against family disapproval. She entered the Dominican convent at

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

in Staffordshire in 1856, as a postulant, and took her religious name "Rose Columba" upon profession in May 1857.

Career

As a young

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pra ...

she taught at schools in Stone. In 1860, Sister Rose Columba became vicaress in the community at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in

Stoke-upon-Trent Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England. The town was incorporated as a municipal borough in 18 ...

. She was appointed vicaress (later prioress) at St Mary's Church in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

in 1866, and served there until 1883. In the summer of 1883, Mother Rose Columba left that work to lead a group of eight overseas to Australia, where Dominican sisters were called to nurse. She kept a journal of the six-week voyage. In Adelaide, the sisters opened a school, embroidered, painted, and cared for the sick, while Mother Rose Columba worked to establish a spiritual component to the community. She designed a Gothic Revival chapel for the convent, but did not live to see it completed.

Death and legacy

Mother Rose Columba Adams died in 1891, aged 59, from kidney failure, at the convent she founded in North Adelaide. The girls' school she and her group founded in North Adelaide remains in operation as St Dominic's Priory College.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Mary Rose Columba 1832 births 1891 deaths 19th-century English people Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Dominican Sisters English Roman Catholics People from Woodchester Burials at West Terrace Cemetery 19th-century Australian women 19th-century Australian Roman Catholic nuns