Allen, Frances Margaret (1784-1819)

Name/Title

Allen, Frances Margaret (1784-1819)

Entry/Object ID

1.1.2

Description

Born: November 13, 1784 in Sunderland, Vermont Died:September 10, 1819 in Montreal, Lower Canada Primary Residence: Westminster, Vermont and Montreal, Lower Canada Daughter of Ethan Allen. Fifth New Englander to become a member of a Canadian religious order. Fanny Allen Hospital, in Colchester, Vermont, is named in her memory.

Also Known As

Fanny Allen

Biographical Information

Biography

Frances "Fanny" Allen was the daughter of Ethan Allen and Frances Montresor Buchanan Allen. Her father died when she was only five years old, so her mother took her and her siblings to Westminster, Vermont. There, her mother was remarried to Dr. Jabez Penniman. In 1807, when she was twenty-three, she asked permission of her parents to spend a year in Montreal, Canada studying French. She was admitted as a boarder with the French Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Allen quickly announced to her family that she had joined the Catholic Church and wished to be a nun. In 1808 she entered a nursing order, the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph, as a novice. Three years later, in 1811, she took her final vows and became the fifth New Englander to enter a Canadian religious order. She spent the rest of her life nursing the sick although she was officially the hospital chemist. She died of consumption at the age of thirty-five, in 1819, and was entombed in the Hospital of the Hotel Dieu in Montreal. In 1894, six Sisters from the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph established the Fanny Allen Hospital, in Colchester, Vermont, in her memory.

Education

Middlebury Seminary

Occupation

Sister of the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Allen, Ethan (1738-1789)

Person or Organization

Allen, Frances Montresor Brush Buchanan (1760-1834)

Related Publications

Publication

A Nun for Two Nations

Publication

Fanny Allen, The First American Nun

Web Links and URLs

Fanny Allen Wikipedia Entry