in the 1840s, her family faced severe financial difficulties due to the deterioration of her father's physical and mental health. in 1843, he was diagnosed with persistent bronchitis, possibly tuberculosis, and faced losing his sight. he gave up his teaching post at king's college and though he lived another 11 years, he suffered from depression and was never physically well again. rossetti's mother began teaching to keep the family out of poverty and maria became a live-in governess, a prospect that christina rossetti dreaded. at this time her brother william was working for the excise office and gabriel was at art school, leaving christina's life at home to become one of increasing isolation. when she was 14, rossetti suffered a nervous breakdown and left school. bouts of depression and related illness followed. during this period she, her mother and her sister became absorbed in the anglo-catholic movement that developed in the church of england. religious devotion came to play a major role in rossetti's life.