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In 1878 the American city of Memphis on the Mississippi
River was struck by an epidemic of yellow fever, which so depopulated the
area that the city lost its charter and was not reorganized for fourteen
years. Almost everyone who could afford to do so left the city and fled to
higher ground away from the river. (It was not yet known that the disease
was mosquito-borne, but it was observed that high and dry areas were safe.)
There were in the city several communities of nuns, Anglican or Roman
Catholic, who had the opportunity of leaving, but chose to stay and nurse
the sick. Most of them, thirty-eight in all, were themselves killed by the
fever. One of the first to die (on 9 September 1878) was Constance, head of
the (Anglican) Community of St Mary.
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