Rosalie Eugenia Stier Calvert (1778-1821)

Rosalie Eugenia Stier Calvert

Birth

16 Feb 1778

Antwerp, Belgium

Death

13 Mar 1821 (aged 43)

Riverdale Park, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA

Burial

Calvert Family Cemetery

Riverdale Park, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA Add to Map

Memorial ID

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Here lies the body of Rosalie Eugenie Calvert, wife of George Calvert, and daughter of Henry J. Stier, Esquire of Antwerp, who died March 13, 1821, aged 43."May she be numbered among the Children of God and her lot be among the Saints."

Over her monument is a bas-relief by Persico, representing the mother with outstretched ares, ascending to heaven, where the four angel children are waiting to receive her.

More information available from Riversdale Historical Society brochure linked here.

Over her monument is a bas-relief by Persico, representing the mother with outstretched ares, ascending to heaven, where the four angel children are waiting to receive her.

More information available from Riversdale Historical Society brochure linked here.

Inscription

ROSALIE CALVERT'S BURIAL VAULT
top inscription:
Here rests the body of ROSALIE EUGENIA CALVERT Wife of George Calvert and
Daughter of Henri J. Stier Esquire of Antwerp who died March 13, 1821 Aged 43.
May she be numbered among the Children of GOD, and her lot be among the Saints.
side inscriptions:
We see the hand, we worship and adore And justify the all-disposing power.
Death ends our woe And puts a period to the ills of life.
Let me die the death of the righteous And let my later end be like his.
On the north side of the burial vault is carved an image of Rosalie being received into heaven
by her four dead children. It was created by Giovanni Andrei, a sculptor born in Carrara,
Italy. His earliest known work was the creation of the balustrade of the high altar at Santa
Maria Novella in Florence. In 1805 Benjamin Henry Latrobe, then architect of the U.S.
Capitol in Washington, D.C., wrote to President Thomas Jefferson's friend in Italy, Philip
Mazzei, to ask the latter to find two sculptors who would execute the decorative work for the
Capitol and send them to the United States. There were then only carvers of wooden shop
signs and ships' figureheads active in America, and the art of sculpture wrought in stone was
hardly known. Andrei, accompanied by his pupil and brother-in-law, Giuseppe Franzoni,
arrived in Baltimore in February 1806, and proceeded to Washington. Andrei and Franzoni
set up a sculptors' lodge on the Capitol grounds and were charged with hiring and training
apprentices while they were creating the architectural ornaments for the rising building.