{{Short description|American teacher (1832-1903)}} {{Infobox Christian leader | name = Mathilda Beasley | honorific_prefix = Mother | church = [[Catholic Church]] | birth_name = Mathilda Taylor | birth_date = November 14, 1832 | death_date = {{death date and age|1903|12|20|1832|11|14}} | birth_place = [[New Orleans]] | death_place = | type = | education = | occupation = Foundress, caregiver | nationality = [[Americans|American]] | image = Mother Mathilda Beasley, OSF.jpg | title = [[Superior General|Mother Superior]] | honorific_suffix = OSF | caption = Mother Mathilda Beasley, OSF, foundress of the first order of Black Catholic nuns in Savannah, Georgia. }} '''Mathilda Taylor Beasley''', [[Franciscans|OSF]] (November 14, 1832 – December 20, 1903) was a [[Black Catholicism|Black Catholic]] educator and religious leader who was the first [[African American]] [[nun]] to serve in the state of [[Georgia (U.S. State)|Georgia]]. She founded a group of African-American nuns and one of the first U.S. orphanages for African-American girls.
In 2004, she was posthumously named a [[Georgia Woman of Achievement]].
==Biography== She was born in [[New Orleans, Louisiana]] on November 14, 1832.<ref name="GWoA">{{cite web|title=Honorees: Mathilda Taylor Beasley|url=http://www.georgiawomen.org/_honorees/beasleym/index.html|publisher=Georgia Women of Achievement|access-date=7 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504011512/https://www.georgiawomen.org/_honorees/beasleym/index.html |archive-date=May 4, 2009}}</ref> She was baptized as a [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]] in 1869, possibly in preparation for her marriage to Abraham Beasley, a wealthy [[free negro|free black]] restaurant owner in Savannah, who died in 1877.
With [[Catherine and Jane Deveaux]], Beasley educated slaves in her home in [[Savannah, Georgia]] before the Civil War although this was illegal at the time.<ref>{{cite web|author=Wells-Bacon, Mary|date=May 26, 1987|title=The Life of Mathilda Beasley|url=http://library.armstrong.edu/Beasley_Mathilda.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919025551/http://library.armstrong.edu/Beasley_Mathilda.pdf|archive-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
Later in life, after becoming a Franciscan nun in England, Beasley returned to the United States and founded a group of African-American sisters in Georgia, called the [[Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (Georgia)|Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis]].<ref name="berend">{{cite news | url=http://savannahnow.com/stories/022104/LOC_nun.shtml#.V-vikBTLS2w |url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222053330/http://savannahnow.com/stories/022104/LOC_nun.shtml#.WjyZPZP7TOQ | archive-date=December 22, 2017 | title=Teacher, nun, hero - Savannah's Mother Mathilda will be honored as one of Georgia's 'Women of Achievement.' | author=Berend, Stephen | date=February 21, 2004 | newspaper=[[Savannah Morning News]] }}</ref> Beasley attempted to affiliate her group with the [[Franciscan Order]] but was ultimately unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite book|title=Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia|date=1994|publisher=First Indiana University Press Edition|isbn=0-253-32774-1|pages=99–100}}</ref>
She also started one of the first orphanages in the United States for African-American girls,<ref name="berend" /> the St. Francis Home for Colored Orphans.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Marker Monday: Mother Mathilda Beasley, O.S.F.: Georgia's First Black Nun|url=https://georgiahistory.com/marker-monday-mother-mathilda-beasley-o-s-f-georgias-first-black-nun/|date=2018-08-13|website=Georgia Historical Society|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-21}}</ref>
She died on December 20, 1903.<ref name="GWoA" />
== Legacy == In 1982 the Mother Mathilda Beasley Park was dedicated in Savannah on a tract of land east of East Broad Street. A [[Georgia historical markers|Georgia Historical Marker]] documenting her life was erected in 1988 at her home in Savannah.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mother Mathilda Beasley, O.S.F. Historical Marker|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=6009|website=www.hmdb.org|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-21}}</ref> In 2014 her cottage, formerly located at 1511 Price Street, was relocated into Mother Mathilda Beasley Park as an interpretive center.
In 2004, Beasley was inducted into the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] hall of fame.<ref name="GWoA" />
[[File:Beasley Cottage and plaque.jpg|800px]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite web |url=http://georgiahistory.com/education-outreach/online-exhibits/featured-historical-figures/mother-mathilda-beasley/mathilda-beasley-and-the-catholic-church/ | title=Mathilda Beasley and the Catholic Church | website=[[Georgia Historical Society]] |access-date=November 27, 2018}}
==External links== * {{Findagrave|83864744}}
{{Georgia Women of Achievement}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beasley, Mathilda}} [[Category:1832 births]] [[Category:1903 deaths]] [[Category:Educators from New Orleans]] [[Category:19th-century African-American educators]] [[Category:African-American women educators]] [[Category:19th-century American Roman Catholic nuns]] [[Category:Franciscan nuns]] [[Category:African-American Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns]] [[Category:Superiors general]]