Mary Augustine Barber

Sister Mary Augustine
Jerusha Booth Barber
Religion	Roman Catholic
Order	Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary
Institute	Georgetown Visitation Monastery
Personal
Nationality	U.S.
Born	Jerusha Booth 1789 Newton, Connecticut
Died	January 1, 1860 Summerville, near Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
Spouse	Virgil Horace Barber (m. 1807)
Children	Mary (b. 1810); Abigail (b. 1811); Susan (b. 1813); Samuel (b. 1814); Josephine (b. 1816)
Religious career
Ordination	February 23, 1820
Profession	Educator

Jerusha Booth Barber, in religion, Sister Mary Augustine (née Jerusha Booth; also Mrs. Jerusha Barber; Sister Mary Austin; Sister May Augustin; 1789 - January 1, 1860) was a 19th-century American educator and Visitandine nun. She entered the Georgetown Visitation Monastery, in 1818, with her four daughters. She founded a convent of visitation in Kaskaskia, Illinois, in 1836, remaining there till 1844. She taught in a convent in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1844 till 1848, and in Mobile, Alabama until the time of her death. Her only son, Samuel, became a Jesuit, and four daughters entered the convent.

Barber was born in Newton, Connecticut, in 1789. Her parents were pious Protestants, strict members of their church.

She married Virgil Horace Barber on September 20, 1807, when she was 19 and he was about 25. The husband and wife did not precipitately embrace the Catholic religion, but the husband found Protestantism too superficial, too recent, too worldly and too inconsistent. In 1816, the family moved to New York and opened a small school for their support; but remained there only seven or eight months, having removed to Georgetown the following spring. When Virgil, who had been an Episcopalian clergyman, made up his mind to become a Roman Catholic priest, Jerusha was 28, and they had five children, Mary (b. 1810); Abigail (b. 1811); Susan (b. 1813); Samuel (b. 1814); and Josephine (b. 1816), and no means of support.

In Washington D.C., the couple became separated, the first step towards an annulment. Barber and her children were placed in a convent, while the husband went to Rome to study towards ordination. There, he promised to make suitable provision for the children. She entered the visitation convent of Georgetown D.C. in 1818 with her four daughters. When she thought she was pregnant, she left the community for a short period, but soon returned. The youngest child, Josephine, still a baby, was placed in the home of Benedict Joseph Fenwick's mother. On February 23, 1820, husband and wife took their religious vows.

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