Cornelia connelly biography meaning

Cornelia Connelly, SHCJ (née Cornelia Peacock; January 15, – April 18, ) was an American-born educator who was the foundress of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, a Catholicreligious institute.

In , she founded the first of many Holy Child schools, in England.

Connelly has been proposed for sainthood in the Catholic Church. In , she was proclaimed as venerable by Pope John Paul II.

Early life

Cornelia Peacock was born in Philadelphia and raised a Presbyterian by her father, Ralph William Peacock Sr.

and mother, Mary Swope.^[1] With her father dying in and her mother dying in , Peacock was left orphaned at the age of She went to live with her half-sister Isabella and her husband, Austin Montgomery.^[2] In she was baptized into the Protestant Episcopal Church and, despite her family's protests, married the Reverend Pierce Connelly, an Episcopal priest.^[3] Cornelia had been well educated by tutors at home.

Pierce was five ye