Mary Aquinas Devlin

Contents

Mary Aquinas Devlin OP (January 27, 1891 – May 14, 1966) was an American Dominican academic who was Professor of English at Rosary College from 1928 until her death. A Guggenheim Fellow, she was a scholar on medieval Bishop of Rochester Thomas Brinton.

Biography

Devlin was born on January 27, 1891, in Denver, Colorado.[1] She was the daughter of James and Ellen Devlin, both born in Wisconsin to Irish-born parents.[2][3] In 1912, she received her BA at Saint Clara College.[1] She later moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin,[2] and she received her MA at University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1914 and worked as a teacher at Sacred Heart Academy (1912–14, 1915–18) and at St. Clara Female Academy (1918–21).[1]

After briefly returning to Saint Clara College to work as an instructor in English (1921–1922), Devlin returned to the Midwest to work at Rosary College;[1] there, she was Associate Professor of English until 1928, when she was promoted to Professor, serving until her death.[1][4] She was also head of the College's Department of English some time in 1930.[2] In 1925, while working at Rosary College, she received her PhD at the nearby University of Chicago.[1] Her dissertation was titled The date of the C-version of Piers the Plowman.[5]

In 1930, Devlin was appointed as a Guggenheim Fellow to spend twelve months in England studying Thomas Brinton's life and legacy and editing his sermons.[1] She published two academic articles on Brinton's sermons.[6][7] She was the editor of both of Camden Series volumes of The Sermons of Thomas Brinton, Bishop of Rochester, 1373-1389 (volumes 85 and 86), published in 1954.[8]

Devlin died on May 14, 1966, in Dubuque, Iowa.[4] Her mass was held at the Sinsinawa Motherhouse in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, on May 17.[4]

References

  1. 1.[1.2][1.3][1.4][1.5][1.6][1.7]"Sister Mary Aquinas Devlin, O.P." John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  2. 2.[2.2][2.3]"Former Kenoshan is Accorded Honor". Kenosha News. March 28, 1930. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  3. 3."1900 United States Federal Census: Roll 119; Page 1; Enumeration District 0102". Ancestry.com. Lehi, Utah: Ancestry.com LLC. 1900. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  4. 4.[4.2][4.3]"Sister Mary Aquinas". Chicago Tribune. May 16, 1966. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  5. 5.Register of Doctors of Philosophy of the University of Chicago, June 1893-June 1927. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1927. p. 51. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  6. 6.Devlin, Mary Aquinas (1939). "Bishop Thomas Brunton and His Sermons". Speculum. 14 (3): 324–344. doi:10.2307/2848600. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848600. S2CID 163899918.
  7. 7.Devlin, Mary Aquinas (1936). "The Chronology of Bishop Brunton's Sermons". PMLA. 51 (1): 300–302. doi:10.2307/458328. ISSN 0030-8129. JSTOR 458328. S2CID 163823383.
  8. 8."CAMDEN THIRD SERIES (1900 – 1963)" (PDF). Royal Historical Society. p. 8. Retrieved December 7, 2023.