Eliza Allen Starr was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 artist, art critic, teacher, and lecturer. She was known throughout the United States for her books about Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 art. She lectured throughout the country. A convert form Unitarianism

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 to Catholicism

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

, in 1885 she became the first woman to be awarded the Laetare Medal

Laetare Medal

The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the University of Notre Dame in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic church and society...

, the most prestigious honour given to American Catholics. Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

 sent her a medallion after she wrote The Three Archangels and the Guardian Angels in Art. She was the aunt of and a large influence on Ellen Gates Starr

Ellen Gates Starr

Ellen Gates Starr was an American social reformer and activist.-Biography:...

.

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