Catherine Spalding

Catherine Spalding, known as Mother Spalding, (December 23, 1793 – March 20, 1858) was an American educator who was a co-founder and longtime mother superior of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. She pioneered education, health services and social services for girls and orphans in Louisville and other Kentucky cities. On January 6, 2003, the Louisville Courier-Journal named Spalding as the only woman among sixteen "most influential people in Louisville/Jefferson County history."

Early life Catherine Spalding was born on December 23, 1793, in Pomfret, Charles County, Maryland. At age four, her family moved to Nelson County, Kentucky. Her mother died the next year and her father later deserted the children due to the stress of financial obligations. An uncle and aunt, Thomas and Elizabeth Spalding Elder, raised the five Spalding children with their own ten children. At age 16, Catherine Spalding moved in with her cousins, Richard and Clementina Elder Clark, living there for three years. According to Spalding, the Elders and Clarks provided her with a stable home life, a religious faith, the skills for pioneer homemaking and health care, and the basics of education. She also developed a passion to care for other children orphaned by death or desertion.

In 1812, David sought volunteers to begin a women's religious community in Kentucky to serve the Catholic children of the region. It came to be called the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN). In January 1813, the 19-year-old Spalding, accompanied by her uncle, arrived at St. Thomas Seminary farm in Nelson County, Kentucky, to join with Teresa Carrico and Elizabeth Wells in establishing the new religious community. David gave the women the Rule of Life of Vincent de Paul as was followed in Emmitsburg. The St. Thomas community grew and in 1822 moved to a larger property in Nazareth, Kentucky. The girls school became known as Nazareth Academy. It soon developed a reputation as one of the best-known schools for young women in the region outside of New Orleans. Nazareth offered instruction in the usual "ladies' accomplishments" along with a curriculum of arts and sciences. She later opened St. Joseph Infirmary in part of the orphanage building.

When not running her institutions, Spalding would return to St. Vincent Orphanage. With the rise in immigration from Ireland and Germany in the 1840s, the orphanage was seeing more children. As superior of the orphanage—"the only place on earth to which my heart clings"—she accepted hundreds of children, directed Sisters and lay assistants, collaborated with professional men and their wives. Spalding was often seen on the streets in Louisville, visiting businesses to solicit donations or attending to the poor in their homes. It was said that "Every orphan in the city claims you as their mother." In 1843, Spalding opened the first free school in Louisville. Spalding eventually moved the St. Joseph Infirmary into its own building so that the St. Vincent orphanage could expand. Between 1854 and 1855, she directed construction of the church and new academy at Nazareth.

In 1858, Spalding contracted pneumonia while working with the sick. She

In 2015, a statue of Spalding was unveiled in Louisville, the first statue of a historic woman in public space in the city. It is located at the parish office on South Fifth Street downtown.