Mary Patrick COSGRAVE

1863 - 1900  (37 years)

• Name	Mary Patrick COSGRAVE
  Born	22 May 1863	Summerhill, Co. Meath, Ireland
  Gender	Female
  Died	31 Jul 1900	Salisbury, Rhodesia   [1]
  Person ID	I620	Irish in South Africa
  Last Modified	18 Dec 2019

  
  

• Sources

  [S2] SESA, (Nationale Boekhandel), 446 + 447. She came to South Africa in 1887, entered the Dominican Order at King William's Town, and taught at the Potchefstroom convent. She volunteered to accompany Rhodes's Pioneer Column to Rhodesia, and with four others (Sisters Arnica, Berchmans, Bonaventura and Constantia) established a temporary hospital at Macloutsi camp; afterwards they moved to Tuli, and then to Salisbury with Father Prestage (July 1891). They organised the first hospital at Salisbury with Mother Patrick as matron, and also the first school (1892.). After the occupation of Matabeleland the Dominicans opened a hospital and a convent at Bulawayo in 1894. They nursed during the Mashona and Matabele rebellions. In 1898 Mother Patrick was unanimously elected Prioress of the Dominican Order in Rhodesia, and in the same year Queen Victoria bestowed on her the order of the Royal Red Cross. Every year on the anniversary of the hoisting of the flag in Salisbury (12. Sept.) the descendants of Rhodesian pioneers and early settlers make a pilgrimage to the grave of Mother Patrick in Salisbury cemetery.