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Pseudonym of Sister M. Antonio Gallagher

Gallagher, Sister M. Antonio (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1846--June 6, 1916, Latrobe, Pennsylvania). When 10, she went to school at St. Joseph's Academy, Emmitsburg, Maryland. When that was closed in the middle of the Civil War, she and her sister went further west to St. Xavier's Academy in what is now Latrobe, Penn., run by the Sisters of Mercy. Upon graduation, she entered their novitiate, taking the name in religion of Sister Mary Antonio and was professed in 1866. St. Joseph's College, Emmitsburg, awarded her the L.H.D. degree in 1911.

For a number of years she taught in the parochial schools of Pittsburgh and worked with the poor of the city. Around 1890, she returned to St. Xavier's where she taught in the upper classes. She also supervised the school's paper, St. Xavier's Journal. She wrote over twenty school dramas and many articles, narrations of conversions, and other devotional literature for various journals using the pseudonym "Rev. Richard W. Alexander."

Her inspirational poetry and hymns were published with the pseudonym "Sister Mercedes." Both verses and prose were collected and published in anthologies several times. One of her many final tributes reads: "Sr. M. Antonio, R.C.M., was in mind and heart a proficient religious woman, and God's love was her unvarying motive in all things."

--Sr. Adele Caslin