With great excitement, I would like to share with you that the City of New York will soon co-name 68th Street between 1st and York Avenue as Rose Hawthorne Way.
Rose Hawthorne, born in 1851 and daughter of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, gave up a life of privilege to care for destitute persons afflicted with incurable cancer. She founded the Dominican Sisters Congregation of St. Rose of Lima, also called the Hawthorne Dominicans, who continue her mission providing care for those diagnosed with terminal cancer free of charge. She is declared Venerable in the Catholic Church and on the path to becoming a canonized saint.
When Rose chose to become a nurse she trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, then called New York Cancer Hospital. She accepted her first patient in her own home on October 1st, 1896, and soon after was encouraged to become a Dominican Tertiary by Fr. Clement Thuente, O.P., a priest of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena. It is a great privilege to share our history with her. The example of her life and heroic virtue is an inspiration and example to us all, and particularly to the nurses and physicians of MSKCC.
In celebration of her dedication to caring for cancer patients and her concern for the poor, New York City will co-name 68th Street next to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and St. Catherine of Siena Church in her honor.
The co-naming ceremony will be held at the corner of 68th Street and 1st Avenue on October 1st at 1pm, with a reception to follow. You are invited to join us there, and to join us in asking the intercession of Venerable Rose Hawthorne.
