ROURK, CATHERINE (1825-1880)

ROURK, CATHERINE, Sister St Emelia of the Congregation of Notre Dame; teacher, and superior at Newcastle, 1877-79; b. Kingston, Ont., 24 May 1825, d/o Matthew Rourk and Mary Meloy, natives of Co. Armagh, Ireland; entered religious life, 1845; d. Montreal, 25 Apr 1880.

The daughter of a businessman, Catherine Rourk was educated at a Montreal boarding school and was one of three members of her family to find vocations with the Congregation of Notre Dame. "Hers was a most useful and instructive career," during which she taught and did the administrative work of the order in Cambridgeport, Mass., and Kankakee, Illinois, as well as in convents in Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick.

Rourk was the first native English speaker and the first woman of Irish extraction to serve as superior of St Mary's Convent at Newcastle. She died a month before her fifty-fifth birthday.