From the Archives – A Religious Family

Saint Mary’s first pastor, Father Francis Neale, came from a very religious Maryland family. Two of his brothers, Father Charles Neale and Bishop Leonard Neale, were Jesuit priests; two other brothers sadly died while studying for the priesthood. Two of his nephews, Fathers Ignatius and William Matthews, also were priests. Three of his nieces entered religious life. In 1754, Anne Matthew, one of the nieces, left her home in Port Tobacco, Charles County, to enter a Discalced Carmelite convent in Belgium, taking the religious name Sister Bernardina Teresa Xavier of Saint Joseph. As soon as the American Revolution ended, two of Sister Bernardina’s nieces sailed to Europe to join their aunt, who was the prioress at her monastery. Father Ignatius felt it was time for a religious Mount Carmel Monastery community of women in Maryland, and wrote, asking them to return home. They responded favorably, returning accompanied by their uncle, Father Charles Neale, and in 1790 established the first Carmelite community in the United States — Mount Carmel, near Port Tobacco.

In 1831, the archbishop of Baltimore asked the nuns to move to Baltimore and open a school. That left the Port Tobacco monastery property abandoned for many years. In 1976, it was restored and the Carmelites returned. Today, this lovely historic monastery is thriving and open to visitors, just a few miles from Chapel Point Cemetery, the final resting place of Father Francis Neale and Saint Mary’s last Jesuit pastor, Father Dionysius (Denis) O’Kane. (See https://www.carmelofporttobacco.com/ for information on the current monastery.)

— Kitty Guy, Parish Historian

In 2020, to commemorate the 225th anniversary of our parish, we started “From the Archives” as a weekly feature online and in our bulletin to spotlight the history of Saint Mary’s. Due to its popularity, we are continuing the series. An archive of the features is located here.