Connelly, Mother Cornelia

Connelly, Mother Cornelia (b. Cornelia Augusta Peacock) (1809–79) Catholic religious foundress; born in Philadelphia. She converted to Catholicism (1835), as did her husband, an Episcopalian priest. They separated, he became a Catholic priest (1845), and she founded the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, moving to England to begin its work (1846). The order also started schools in the U.S.A., which she visited. Her husband later renounced his conversion and sought unsuccessfully to regain marital rights.