Tea at Trianon: Port Tobacco

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Port Tobacco

The first Carmelite Monastery in America was founded in Port Tobacco, Maryland in 1790.

Prior to the Declaration of Independence, religious freedom had been denied to Catholics. Women and men wishing to enter into a religious vocation had to do so by leaving America and heading for Europe. Convents in Belgium and France were for devoted Americans likely destinations as even England had anti-Catholic laws at the time.

Three of the founding nuns of Mt. Carmel, Mother Bernardina, Sister Mary Aloysia and Sister Mary Eleanora along with Father Neale, were all natives of Southern Maryland. Mother Bernardina was a descendant of one of the first families in Maryland and Sisters Mary Aloysia and Mary Eleanor were her nieces.

The founders had made the arduous trip to Europe and after the Revolution ended, returned to Southern Maryland to enjoy religious freedom and to bring Carmel to America and to their original home.

When Father Neale and the Sisters returned to Charles County, they stayed originally at what was then Father Neale's family estate, Chandler's Hope in Port Tobacco (Chandler's Hope is where both Father Neale and Archbishop Neale were born). But the estate lacked the seclusion needed for the Sisters and so Father Neale exchanged Chandler's Hope for 860 acres about three miles north of Port Tobacco. This is where the original monastery buildings were constructed.

After a very long history, and through many struggles for survival and revival, today's monastery is on nearly 80 acres, bordering the Mt. Carmel Estates neighborhood, less than a half-mile from the College of Southern Maryland's La Plata campus. (Read more.)

Julygirl said...: An interesting area that has historic significance in the founding of the Amnerican Colonies. As the name implies it was a busy Tobacco shipping port until it silted up over the years.....also Tobacco prices dropped due to the abundance of the product and the town did not continue to grow. This area, during our current era, has a large and busy population, but the original historic sites still exist and make for an interesting day trip from the DC metro area.; August 28, 2011 at 9:16:00 AM EDT
Dymphna said...: It's very sobering to go peek into the recreation of the first convent. The sisters were living in very unpleasant conditions.; August 29, 2011 at 12:51:00 PM EDT