Mary Anne Layton came from a prairie town in Missouri with the unpromising name of The Barrens, where a number of Catholic families from Maryland and Kentucky had settled. They were land-rich and money-poor with little opportunity for education. Mary Anne was born on July 2, 1802; her mother died soon afterward. Her father, Bernard Layton, entrusted her to the Mother of God, and she grew up happily in a household full of brothers who spoiled her. The child felt a strong desire to give her life to God, but she did not know where to turn until she learned from her pastor that some nuns had come to Missouri from France. Mary Anne set out for Florissant where she was welcomed by Mother Duchesne.

Friendly and open, she adjusted quickly to her strange new life, guided by Eugénie Audé, whom Mary Anne in turn helped to learn English. She received the habit of a coadjutrix sister on November 22, 1820, just two years after Mother Philippine Duchesne brought the then-young Society to North America and founded a school in St. Charles, Missouri. There is a rare note of triumph in Mother Duchesne’s journal entry: “On this happy day those of the pupils who have a talent for music sang the Mass, and very well too. We celebrated in a becoming manner the first religious clothing that has taken place in Upper Louisiana since the beginning of the world, and great was our joy to see another soul entirely consecrated to the Sacred Heart.” The children were impressed by the ceremony; in time some of them, Emilie St Cyr, Eulalie and Mathilde Hamilton would follow Mary Layton’s example, and soon native Americans outnumbered nuns from France.

On August 5, 1921, Eugénie Audé and Mary Layton took the river boat for Louisiana, ending up in Grand Coteau. It speaks well of Mary’s maturity and strength of character that she was chosen for this new venture while still a novice. Mother Audé gave an account of their journey to the superior general: “Your two poor daughters were deposited on a very muddy shore and were lodged at an inn. As we were alone together, we could talk freely for awhile, and so we spoke of you and of our dear mothers and sisters in France. Then we prayed and were as happy as we could be away from home.” From a distance Mother Barat could follow her first American daughter, who was learning the Society’s traditions (still so brief) from those who knew the founder.

Once at Grand Coteau, Mary found southern cooking a trial and the climate a worse one, but she struggled on. She made her first vows in 1822 and her profession three years later. Again, the children were impressed; among them was Mary Ann Hardey, who promptly entered the second novitiate in America. Sister Layton then returned to Missouri where she served strenuously and quietly for many years in the three houses there. Mother Duchesne wrote to Bishop Rosati, “I have sent Sister Layton to St. Charles, and they are very happy to have her.”

Then, in 1845, came a dramatic change; Sister Layton was sent to the Potawatomi mission at Sugar Creek. She found herself in a log house; the four corners of the main room were designated: kitchen, refectory, parlor, community room. The sleeping quarters were in a loft reached by a ladder. The walls were lined with canvas that billowed when the wind blew. For Sister Layton, all this was a challenge to her heroism. For many years she found the work and living conditions repugnant, but she did not give up. She formed a strong bond with Lucille Mathevon, the young superior, and the two supported each other for thirty years. Sister Layton moved with the Potawatomi to St. Marys on the Kansas River, in 1847.

Here again the community faced real privations, until the small house was filled with eighty Potawatomi boarders. Government inspectors were pleased with the school and praised “that self-sacrificing spirit which the love of God and the labor of elevating the human race should inspire in every human breast.” This was the spirit in which Mary Layton carried on those demanding tasks that make a home out of any house. Year after year the catalogs list her employments as cook, laundress, farmyard overseer. She served her community and the children with unstinting love.

There were those in the Society who criticized this work as “marginal,” but Mothers Gœtz and Lehon, successively superiors general, defended and supported it. The community did its brave best until sociological forces brought the work to an end. In the 1870’s the house journal reports sadly: “The Indians are few and scattered now. Civilization has gradually crept in, and our superiors have judged it best, for the glory of God, to abandon the type of education we gave the Indian girls, who are now received only as day pupils in the free school.” By that time, Sister Layton could help only by prayer and suffering. Mother Mathevon, herself, said to her one day, “When I die I shall come for you.” And so it was: Lucille Mathevon died on March 11 and Mary Layton on March 30, 1876.

– Frances Gimber, RSCJ, U.S. Province archivist