ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century Irish author Mary Anne Madden Sadlier (1820-1903) wrote numerous emigrant novels su used with Catholicism, traditional Irish culture, and sentimental romance. Her emigrant novels reinforce her view of the importance of Catholicism in successful transnational emigration, by highlighting the need to continue its rigorous teaching in the host country once the emigrants have settled. Sadlier was born in Cootehill, Co. Cavan in 1820. Her mother died when she was a child and after her father’s death in 1844, Sadlier left Ireland and emigrated to Montreal where she supported herself through writing for various periodicals, such as The Literary Garland which concerned itself with the interests of Irish Catholics and how they were represented in drama, tales, poetry, and music. These publications were a perfect platform for Sadlier to launch her American writing career; as Charles Fanning explains they were read by an audience of Irish Famine emigrants in the United States (114-17). In 1846, she met and married James Sadlier, and in 1860 they moved to New York. After her husband died in 1869 Sadlier returned to Canada where in 1895 she was awarded the Laetare Medal by Notre Dame University for her outstanding lay contributions to the Catholic Church (Anna Sadlier 335). Her infl uences on society were also acknowledged in 1902, one year before her death, when she received a special blessing from Pope Leo XIII in recognition of her “illustrious service for the Catholic Church” (Seward 284). Sadlier was a prolifi c writer who wrote over sixty texts, ranging from historical novels and children’s literature to poetry and sentimental fi ction. Her relevance today stems from the fact that she was one of the fi rst Irish women writers to write about the realities of emigration, as well as address important social subjects of her era, such as the Famine, domestic service, and the role of the Catholic Church in people’s lives. Sadlier’s literary works encompass many themes-not least the creation and championing of an Irish cultural identity for her emigrant readers who found themselves consumed by a foreign culture and facing a frequently hostile American reception.
