Clementina Clark

"Clementina Elder, so named from her grandmother, was as remarkable for her intelligence as she was for her filial devotion, and for the exactitude with which she performed every duty of her state of life. Her religion was for daily and hourly wear, and from childhood to old age she was a pattern of christian piety and meekness. About the year 1807, she became the wife of Richard Clark, whose father, Clement Clark, had emigrated from Maryland, and settled on Simpson's creek. Nelson county, in the year 1788.

When she was fairly settled in her new home, Mrs. Clark induced her father to transfer to her care and guardianship his adopted daughter, Catharine Spalding, whose mother was now dead. It is beyond doubt that the latter was indebted to her foster mother for the training by which she was prepared for the important work of charity to which her life was devoted after her nineteenth year. Among the many of the gentler sex in Kentucky who gave up their entire lives to the service of God and their neighbors, not another has lived and died in peace whose name is held to the present day in greater reverence than is that of Mother Catharine Spalding. From the day she vowed her- self to God, and was named superior of the little religious community which has grown, in our day, into one whose influence for good is coextensive with the State, and reaches far beyond its borders, to that upon which, reclining upon ashes, she surrendered her soul to her Heavenly Bridegroom, she appeared to have no other object in life but to render faithful service to her divine Lord and Master, and to His afflicted representatives in the world, the poor and the fatherless.*

Of Clementina Clark's children, most of whom were known to the writer, reference here need be made but to one, the late Rev. William Elder Clark, of the diocese of Louisville. The most lovable character that has hitherto adorned the holy ministry in Kentucky was this fourth remove from the American patriarch of his family.' So free was he from asperities that he was loved of every one, and so pure was his life that there was an element of reverence intermixed with the love he incited in the breasts of all who were happy enough to be of the number of his acquaintances. He was not unfrequently referred to as "the pet of the clergy of Kentucky." He was much more than that, however. He was for them an exemplar of piety unaffected, of purity that was angelic, and of goodness that was Umitless. His entire character was a reminder to those who knew him intimately, and especially to his associates of the clergy, of that given by sacred history and tradition to "the beloved disciple." He hved a life that was useful to thousands, and when he died, strong men wept like children."

Ben. J. Webb, The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky. (Charles A. Rogers, 1884; Reprinted by McDowell Publications)