Harriet Starr Cannon (May 7, 1823 – April 5, 1896) was a nun who founded the Sisterhood of St. Mary, one of the first orders of Augustinian nuns in the Anglican Communion and which remains dedicated to social service.
Early life
Cannon was born in Charleston, South Carolina to stock broker William and Sally Hinman Cannon. The Cannons were a merchant family whose ancestors were wealthy Huguenots who fled France for New Netherlands about 1632 and lived in New York City by 1693.
On September 29 and 30, 1824 William and Sally Cannon, respectively, died of yellow fever. Seventeen-month-old Catherine Starr and three-year-old Harriet were orphaned. Sally's brother-in-law, Captain James Allen had stopped in the port of Charleston about that time. He rescued the girls, brought them aboard his boat, and took them to their maternal aunt, Mrs. Fowler or Mrs. Hyde in Bridgeport, Connecticut where they were raised. The sisters had an especially close relationship as well as joined their aunt's five children. Harriet was described as cheerful, well-mannered, intelligent, and a proficient artist and musician. She taught music and art to children who were friends or relatives. Harriet lost one eye in a childhood accident when she moved while her hair was being combed.
While in New York visiting relatives, Harriet was confirmed in 1844. A relative, however, described as a "great society girl, and not at all religious."
Her sister married John Ruggles in 1851 and moved to California. Moreover, the Hyde family moved to Milford, Connecticut. Sometime beforehand, Harriet moved to Brooklyn where she sang in the Grace Church choir and taught music. Harriet planned to move to California, and began to say her good-byes to family members but shortly before embarking in 1855, she learned that Catherine had died. This "became the crisis of her life". She later recalled, "I can look back to one period of my life when I scarcely knew whether the sun rose or the sun set; when for days there seemed to be no one in the world but myself." Forty years later, Cannon still came to tears when she talked about her sister and stated that if Catherine had lived, she would not have become a sister and mother of the church.
Sisterhood of the Holy Communion
On March 6, 1856 Harriet Cannon became a probationer of the Episcopal order of deaconesses, Sisterhood of the Holy Communion, founded about a decade earlier by Anne Ayres. The order was somewhat controversial; detractors criticized their attire and mission for resembling Catholic nuns. For the probationary three-year period, Cannon was expected to support herself financially. She cared for seriously ill patients, including some quarantined or victims of small pox.
The deaconesses assisted the poor in New York City under the auspices of Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg and the Church of the Holy Communion, and had recently helped found St. Luke's Hospital. Dr. Muhlenberg described the deaconesses as "the centre around whom the others are to rally, carrying out her directions and deriving through her, in return, supplies, protection, and all needful provision for their comfort." During this time, he also described a visit as attending physician:
Community of St. Mary
In 1863, conflicts with Ayres led Cannon and four other sisters to leave and establish a new order, initially called the Sisters of St. Catherine. On February 2, 1865, Bishop Horatio Potter (1802-87) formally received Cannon, Jane Haight, Mary Heartt, Amelia Asten, and Sarah Bridge as the "Sisterhood of St. Mary". The new order, now called the Community of St. Mary (CSM), followed a modified Benedictine rule. It concentrated its efforts upon helping women, the homeless and orphans. By year's end it accepted its first novice. During her lifetime and afterwards, the Community developed girls’ schools, hospitals, and orphanages in New York, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.