Did LDS prophet Brigham Young ask a Catholic nun to be his 28th wife?

I first heard the fascinating (and rather sweet) story about Brother Brigham and Sister Augusta more than a year ago.

I was talking with Mary Emmie Gardner, CEO of Salt Lake City’s Holy Cross Ministries. HCM is the nonprofit that the Sisters of the Holy Cross set up to continue their good Utah work after they sold Holy Cross Hospital in 1993.

Emmie is a credible source on all things Holy Cross. She told me she had heard that Latter-day Saint polygamous leader Brigham Young once had proposed “sealing” Utah’s first Catholic nun to himself so that she could be part of the Celestial Kingdom, Mormonism’s highest heaven, as he understood it.

I’ve been trying to learn more about the story ever since. I did a little research after Emmie first relayed it but found nothing.

That all changed, however, when I started research for an article about the upcoming 150th anniversary (in 2025) of the 1875 arrival of the Holy Cross Sisters in Salt Lake City.

I love the Holy Cross Sisters. They were my teachers, good friends and inspiration for many years. And the charitable work they have done in Utah is legendary.

From my reading, I learned that the pioneering Utah Holy Cross nuns were Sister Raymond (Mary) Sullivan and Sister Augusta (Amanda) Anderson.

They traveled via train and stagecoach from their convent in South Bend, Indiana, and arrived in Salt Lake City on June 6, 1875.

Father Lawrence Scanlan (soon to be Utah’s first Catholic bishop) had invited them here to build schools and help educate children.

About the two sisters

Sister Raymond was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1830. She worked as a seamstress, portress, assistant superior, mistress of scholastics, secretary and archivist at the Indiana convent. She also devoted about 17 years to teaching and hospital work in Utah.

Sister Augusta (later known as Mother Augusta after she was elected to lead the Holy Cross Sisters) was born in 1830 in Virginia. Her mother died when she was 4, and the surviving Anderson family moved West via prairie schooner.

Augusta/Amanda settled in Ohio with her aunt and uncle. She became the child they’d never had. They schooled her in the faith, about books and farm life, and about caring for others, including Native Americans.

Augusta joined the Holy Cross order and worked in its schools and medical facilities. She managed two Union army hospitals during the Civil War, leading Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to exclaim, “What a wonderful woman she is! She can control the men better than I can.”

Her order eventually sent her to Salt Lake City with Sister Raymond. The two Holy Cross sisters stayed with Thomas and Sarah Marshall when they arrived. Marshall, a nephew of Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, was a prominent lawyer. His wife, Sarah, the daughter of a Missouri congressman, was a devout Catholic.

In between the sisters’ work assessing and strategizing about local needs (mainly involving health care and education), Bishop Scanlan introduced them to Brigham Young. Although in the last two years of his life, the Lion of the Lord, who made the desert bloom, was still quite vigorous.

By all accounts Young was cordial to the sisters. He offered any assistance he could give, other than financial aid. Thereafter, the Latter-day Saint pioneer-prophet warmly greeted the two Catholic nuns whenever he met them in the streets.

I thought that was the full story about their encounters. Then I stumbled upon a 1987 article written for the Holy Cross History Association by another Holy Cross nun. A few lines buried deep in the story jumped out at me:

“There is an oral tradition in the congregation, that Mother Augusta taught some of Brigham Young’s children in the Beehive, and or the Lion House. The same tradition says that he asked her to be ‘sealed’ to him for eternity, so that even after death she could be part of the Celestial Kingdom. There is no written evidence.”

A platonic proposal

Excited, I wrote to officials with the Holy Cross archives and asked if they had any additional information about this fascinating tidbit. They sent me a copy of the only cited source, a 1969 article (“His 28th Wife”) by Gloria J. Skurzynski in a Catholic journal called Marriage published by St. Meinrad Archabbey.

Skurzynski is a well-known writer who lived in Utah for a time and now resides in Idaho. She wrote more than 50 books for children and young adults, winning numerous awards.

Skurzynski’s 1969 Marriage article told the basic and familiar background story about the arrival of the Holy Cross Sisters in Utah but also noted that Young asked the two pioneer nuns to teach his own children. They agreed.

For some time, Sisters Augusta and Raymond instructed Young’s children about china painting, oil and water coloring, and languages. The lessons occurred at the church leader’s adjacent homes, the historic Beehive House and Lion House, both of which are undergoing renovations.

The sisters apparently impressed Young. To give context for what she said may have happened next, Skurzynski explained the early Mormon notion of platonic sealing:

“By the time [Young] took his 27th wife in 1869, he had fathered 56 children. Nineteen of the women were wives in the physical sense. His [eight] platonic unions were based on concern for the women’s spiritual welfare, since, according to the original revelation, a woman could reach heaven only by marriage to a Mormon man.”

Skurzynski then delightfully recounted the possible marriage proposal. Here is an excerpt:

“One can only imagine the inevitable scene as it must have happened. Sister Augusta may have just finished teaching a class in the schoolroom when she received word that Brigham Young wished to speak to her. She went to him, perhaps in his office on the first floor. He asked her to be seated.

“Brigham Young was 74 years old, but he was no weak, addled old man. Only five years earlier he had fathered his 56th child. He was robust, portly, full bearded — the very image of patriarchal authority. His gray-eyed gaze was level and fearless.

“Sister Augusta was no docile, submissive woman. She was an organizer, accustomed to exercising authority in her own order. In 1875, she was 45 years old, rather stout, her blue eyes and round fair face circled by her starched white coronet. In expression and character, Sister Augusta and Brigham Young were both similar. Both were accomplished leaders who had achieved tremendous things against great odds, both were unafraid, both wanted to do God’s will, both were confident in their religious convictions.

“And then Brigham Young proposed to Sister Augusta. He didn’t ask her to be his wife in the physical sense of the word. He asked her to be ‘sealed’ to him for eternity, so that after death, she could be a part of the Celestial Kingdom. In this way, she’d be sure to get to heaven. This was undoubtedly the profoundest compliment he could pay to the lady.

“But the lady no doubt preferred to get to heaven by her own methods. She declined Brigham’s proposal with great tact, one must assume.”

Brigham rebuffed

I also enjoyed Skurzynski’s assessment of the likely aftermath of what would have been an unusual event:

“Brigham Young’s historical position is unquestioned. But one cannot help but wonder how this rebuff affected the man who created a city on a desolation of salt flats through sheer willpower. The nun’s refusal of marriage must’ve at least confused Young, who had saved the souls of eight other women with celestial marriage.

“We wonder too how it affected Mother Augusta. At the very least, the proposal must’ve become a famous story in the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.”

And so it did, which probably is why I eventually heard about it, too.

I’ve asked friends who have worked in Catholic archives, at Brigham Young University, and at the history department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if they’d ever heard of this story. None had.

I even emailed Gloria Skurzynski about the article. I never heard back, but maybe I had an outdated address.

So the wonderful story remains unconfirmed, and that probably never will change. I still like it anyway.

Lots of people — Catholic or not — admire the Holy Cross Sisters. I’d love to see some of them in my eternity.

I can’t fault Brigham Young if he was so smitten, too.

Michael Patrick O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City who often represents The Salt Lake Tribune in legal matters. His book “Monastery Mornings: My Unusual Boyhood Among the Saints and Monks,” about growing up with the monks at an old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, was published by Paraclete Press and chosen by the League of Utah Writers as the best nonfiction book in 2022.

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