Amanda Davis
Sister of Jefferson Davis
The mortal remains of Amanda Davis, sister of Jefferson Davis of Civil War notoriety, are buried on the grounds of the Abbey of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery in Kentucky - a stone’s throw from the grave of Thomas Merton, the famed monk-writer, author of The Seven Storey Mountain and dozens more books.
It may come as a surprise to learn that in front of the abbey is a public cemetery where those who lived near have been buried since the early 1800s. Merton, whose religious name was Father Louis, is buried among his brothers in the graveyard adjacent to the abbey.
Amanda Jane “Mary” Davis Bradford died in 1881, aged 80. The inscription on her tombstone reads:
To the memory of our beloved Mother Amanda Davis.
Born Nov. 14, 1800. Married in Louisiana to David Bradford 1819.
Baptized in the Holy Catholic Faith at Nazareth, Kentucky.
Taking for her baptismal name Amanda Jane Francis Bradford.
Died at New Hope Kentucky, in her 81st year. Oct. 22, 1881.
It appears her marker was replaced in recent years with the original base and cross at top repurposed.
This is interesting: while Jefferson Davis, a native of the border state Kentucky, was president of the Confederacy, the abbey and its approximately five dozen monks at the time enjoyed the protection of Union troops in the area - thanks to a Pope - it seems the abbot, Dom Benedict Berger, had made an ally of a certain Colonel Pope, who made sure Union troops watched over Gethsemani.1
And Amanda, according to her obituary, was “a lady of exalted virtues and Christian charity, beloved by all for her pure and blameless life.” Fitting, then, to be buried where she is: near the entrance to the abbey, “a school of the Lord’s service, a training ground for brotherly love.”2
William B. Allen, History of Kentucky, 1872.
monks.org