Butler, Mother Marie Joseph (1860–1940)

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Butler, Mother Marie Joseph (1860–1940)

American founder of the Marymount schools and colleges. Name variations: Mother Butler. Born Johanna Butler, July 22, 1860, in Ballynunnery, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland; died April 23, 1940, in Tarrytown, NY; dau. of John and Ellen (Forrestal) Butler.

Entered convent in Béziers, France, of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary (1876); taught in convent school at Oporto, Portugal (1879–80), then headed English and French departments at school in Braga, Portugal; appointed superior of Braga convent and school (1893); sent to head congregation's school at Sag Harbor, Long Island, NY (c. 1903); opened Marymount School in Tarrytown, NY (1908), which was followed by opening of novitiate (1910) and college (1918); founded branches of Marymount in other US locations and abroad; established the Mother Butler Mission Guilds and is credited with the development of retreat movement in US; elected mother general of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary (1926).

See also Katherine Burton, Mother Butler of Marymount (Longmans, 1944).

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Butler, Mother Marie Joseph (1860–1940)

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