Born Jane Lansdowne in England in 1841, from an early age Mother Mary St. Peter was educated by the Dominican Sisters in Stone, Staffordshire. She then joined the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, which was still in its infancy, having been founded by Cornelia Connelly in 1846. She was admitted as a postulant in 1862, professed her vows in 1864, and was a well-beloved teacher for many years in the Convent schools. In 1876 she was chosen as Prefect for a new school in Paris, but to her great disappointment, she was unable to take the post, and instead was sent in 1885 to America, where she taught in Nebraska, Minnesota and Wyoming before returning to the motherhouse in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania in 1897. Here she took up writing as a way of helping to raise money for building the chapel there. "Isn't God good to let me work on these little books?" she once said. "I always wanted to write books on Christian Doctrine and now at the end He is graciously allowing it." She kept up her work until the day she died, writing over a dozen books and plays, the last of which had to be finished by a fellow sister upon her death in 1906. (this biography copyright 2016 St. Augustine Academy Press)
