Excerpt

From chapter seven of The Visitation, "The Visitation Order in the United States"

In 1799, on a hill overlooking the Potamic River, three "Pious Ladies" -- Alice Lalor, Maria McDermott and Maria Sharpe -- settled in a small house on a plot adjacent to Georgetown College. Father (later Archbishop) Leonard Neale, the college president, was their spiritual father. United in their desire to consecrate their lives to God, they also dedicated themselves to educating young women.

...Alice Lalor and her companions were attracted to the words of St. Francis de Sales. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, they founs the spirit they could identify as their own: a spirit of liberty, flexibility, optimism, simplicity and a common-sense approach to life. Salesian spirituality suited a fledgling group of pioneer sisters carving out a new life as religious in a young nation.