Genevieve Garvan was born on April 11, 1880, in
Hartford, Connecticut. Her brother was
Francis Patrick Garvan. A sister joined the
Sisters of Mercy in Hartford, Connecticut. Garvan married
Nicholas Frederic Brady on August 11, 1906. Her husband, who was raised
Episcopalian, converted to Catholicism before their wedding. During
World War I, she purchased the
Old Colony Club in New York City and lent it to the United States government as a mobilization center for nurses training for service in Europe. After the war she was decorated by the French government for her financial aid to refugees and was awarded the
Order of the Crown by King
Albert I of Belgium. In the 1920s, Garvan and her husband spent winters at the palace of
Casa del Sole in Rome to work within Vatican affairs. Her husband, who was later given the title of
papal duke, was the first American to be inducted into the
Supreme Order of Christ, the highest chivalric order formerly awarded by the
Pope of Rome. She was made a papal duchess in 1926 by
Pope Pius XI. She was also made a
Dame of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Dame of the
Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and received the
Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. Under First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt she served as vice chair of the National Women's Committee on Welfare and Relief Mobilization. She served as vice president of the Welfare Council of New York. In 1934, she received the
University of Notre Dame's
Laetare Medal as the most notable lay Catholic in America. She and her husband lived at 910
Fifth Avenue in
New York City and at
Inisfada, their
Tudor Revival estate in
Manhasset, New York. They entertained and hosted various high-ranking Catholic officials, including
Francis Spellman and the future
Pope Pius XII. In 1937, she gifted the estate, including 250 acres of land and an 87-room mansion, to the New York Province of the
Society of Jesus, Its chapel was dedicated to
St. Genevieve. Her husband died in 1930, leaving her his entire estate valued at $12 million. On March 6, 1937, Brady married William Babington Macaulay, the
Irish Free State minister to the Vatican, in a private ceremony witnessed only by clergy and held without notice because Macaulay's presence was required in Rome. She died in Rome on November 24, 1938, after a brief illness. == References ==