Eliza Maria Gillespie

Who was Eliza Maria Gillespie?

Eliza Maria Gillespie, in religion Mother Mary of St. Angela, C.S.C., was an American Religious Sister.

Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 21 February 1824; died at St. Mary's convent, Notre Dame, Indiana, 4 March 1887. She was the daughter of John Purcell Gillespie and Mary Madeleine Miers, the latter a convert to the Church. After her husband's death Mrs. Gillespie in 1838 went with her three children to her former home, Lancaster, Ohio. Eliza Maria first attended the school of the Dominican Sisters at Somerset, Ohio, and completed her studies at the Visitation Convent at Georgetown, D.C., in 1844. Her kinsman, Thomas Ewing of Ohio, was then eminent in public life, and this fact, joined to her beauty and accomplishments, made her at once a prominent figure in the social life of Washington and of Ohio. Her sympathy was roused by the sufferings of the Irish people during the famine, and she and her cousin, Eleanor Ewing, by their joint efforts, collected a large sum of money for their relief.

In 1853 she felt the call to the religious life and determined to enter the order of the Sisters of Mercy.