Sinsinawa
Spectrum
A Congregation News Magazine
Celebrating Mother Emily and Mother Samuel
by Priscilla Wood, OP
Mother Emily Power
Mother Samuel Couglin
How do the lives of two Dominican Sisters―Mother Emily Power, OP, who died 100 years ago Oct. 16, and Mother Samuel Coughlin, OP, who died 50 years ago on Oct. 17―connect with our lives today? These women graced us with their spirit, faith, vision, and commitment to excellence in education.
Ellen Power, born in Ireland, immigrated at age 8 to the United States with her family under harsh circumstances. Entering the United States through New Orleans, she lost her father to cholera in St. Louis and finally found a home near Sinsinawa Mound. Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, OP, told Ellen’s mother, “Bring all your girls to my school in Benton.” At age 13, in 1857, Ellen went to St. Clara Academy and excelled in academics, especially math; showed amazing leadership skills; and, upon graduation, joined the Sisters, as had two of her sisters before her, making her profession as Sister Emily to Father Samuel in 1862. Within five years at age 23, upon the death of Regina Mulqueeny, OP, Emily Power was elected Prioress of the 30 Sisters. She was chosen as Prioress at every election until her death 42 years later. Emily was a living link to Father Samuel and the first Sisters. As Eva McCarty, OP, wrote in her history of the Congregation, “Through all the struggles, the trials, the inevitable changes of the swiftly passing years, the spirit of Father Samuel and his pioneer band had endured and was passed on to those who could know it only as tradition, but tradition which would always have power to vivify and to renew.”
This was Mother Emily’s legacy―that she who had absorbed Father Samuel’s vision, his belief in the need for excellence in education, his sense of social justice, his love of the Church despite its faults, his compassion, and his joyful spirit, all meshed with her own resiliency, intelligence, faith, and humor. She continually led the Congregation in that vision.
Ellen Coughlin was born in Faribault, MN, in 1868. She met the Sinsinawa Dominicans at Bethlehem Academy. Her mentor, who shared with her the stories and spirit of Father Samuel and the early Sisters was Mother Emily’s sister Gertrude Power, OP. Ellen entered the Congregation upon her graduation and made profession as Sister Samuel. In 1904 Mother Emily, having experienced Sister Samuel’s skills in so many areas, asked her to serve as Prioress of the Motherhouse, which also meant she was Directress of the academy and college. She also served on the General Council as Vicaress, and, when Emily died in 1909, Mother Samuel became Prioress of the Congregation. She was elected to that position for the next 40 years, finally asking the Sisters to allow her to retire in 1949 at age 81. From her diary and letters, we know there were times she struggled with that position of leadership, feeling unworthy and unqualified. But the community never knew that―they believed in her.
Emily Power and Samuel Coughlin―two girls named Ellen who encountered the Spirit of God in the lives of frontier women who in turn caught the fire of the mission of the Order of Preachers. In their combined 82 years of leadership, they served the people of God and their Sisters with grace and incredible love. Their legacy lives on in the spirit and vision of this Congregation, for all who take their tradition and use its power to vivify and renew the mission into the future.