Mother Mary Frances Clarke was an Irish-born American nun. She maintained her own "Miss Clarke’s School” in Ireland, later she emigrated to America where she became the Superior of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Background
Mary Frances Clarke was born on March 02, 1803 in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Cornelius and Catherine (Hyland) Clarke. Her mother was the daughter of an English Quakeress; her father was a prosperous dealer in leather. A fire, however, destroyed most of his property, and anxiety brought on a paralytic stroke that left him for the rest of his life an invalid.
Education
Clarke attended a penny school. She learned botany, music, needlework and to read and write.
Career
When still young, Mary Frances took charge of her father's leather business and carried it on successfully. While ministering to victims of the cholera epidemic of 1831 she became acquainted with Margaret Mann, Rose O’Toole, Elizabeth Kelly, and Catherine Byrne, who like herself were inclined toward the life of a religious. Under her leadership they opened “Miss Clarke’s School” on March 19, 1832, for Catholic children who were too poor to attend a convent school. Their undertaking prospered, but persuaded by an American priest that in the New World was a larger opportunity to serve God the little group migrated in 1833 to America, the voyage from Liverpool to New York occupying fifty-one days. As they were about to land at New York their store of money rolled out of their purse and was lost overboard.
Undaunted by this misfortune they proceeded to Philadelphia, as they had planned, and there on September 10, 1833, they first met Terence James Donaghoe, an Irish priest and a man, among other virtues, of remarkable discernment in things spiritual. He secured their services as teachers in his parish, and under his inspiration and guidance the informal community became, with the consent of Bishop Kenrick, the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The act of consecration was performed on All Saints’ Day, 1833. Father Donaghoe became Director of the Order, and Sister Mary Clarke its Superior. Father Donaghoe drew up the constitutions of the Order.
Until 1843 the Sisters lived in Philadelphia, maintaining their school and contending with a poverty that sometimes meant actual hunger. In June 1843 at the pressing invitation of Bishop Matthias Loras, five of the Sisters went to Dubuque, lowa, and so evident was the need of them in the western diocese that the rest followed before the end of the year. Father Donaghoe was made vicar- general of the diocese. Dubuque was then a frontier settlement of some 700 people; wolves and Indians still roamed the prairie. Amid these primitive conditions the Sisters devoted themselves to teaching, and although their convent was burned by a crazed incendiary May 22, 1849, the Order grew in numbers and effectiveness. It received several testimonies of Papal favor, the Decree of Final Approbation and Confirmation being issued by Pope Leo XIII on March 15, 1885.
Mother Clarke led a life hidden entirely from the world and largely even from her own Sisters, but the order that she founded is some index of her character. Charity, simplicity, and humility are the virtues enjoined on its members, with absence of censoriousness as the form of charity especially to be cultivated.