7 - Catherine McAuley
1778 – 1841
Founder: The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, Dublin 1831
Catherine McAuley, a compassionate visionary, founded the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland in 1831. Her dedication to serving those in need laid the groundwork for the Sisters of Mercy's enduring legacy of education, healthcare, and social justice, which continues to inspire generations to come.
Image: Catherine McAuley – Come Sit A While, by Gael O’Leary
Time with Catherine
Welcome. Come and sit a moment with me.
My name is Catherine. I was born in 1778 in Dublin, Ireland, at a time when the effects of the penal laws were still being felt, especially by poor Catholic families, many of whom lived in one room in dark, overcrowded tenement houses with little or no sanitation. Hunger and diseases like typhus and cholera were common. Many children died in infancy or were left orphans after the deaths of their parents, and many servant women and girls were in constant danger from those for whom they worked.
I was born into a Catholic family but I never wanted to be a nun. I only wanted to serve the poor because that seemed to be what God was asking of me.
I knew that God never calls any person without giving them the means and necessary help to carry them through all the difficulties of it, and such it has been with the work of the Sisters of Mercy.
It all began in 1823 when, to my absolute astonishment, my good friend, William Callaghan left me an inheritance which I used to build the House of Mercy on Baggot Street in Dublin. Our work started there with just two of us – Anna Maria Doyle and myself and soon numbers of young women joined us in order to share in this work. In 1831, at the request of our Archbishop, we formed a religious order - The Sisters of Mercy, known locally as “the walking nuns“, because people saw us on the streets, visiting those in need in their homes.
Our principal aim, as Sisters of Mercy, was to educate poor girls, to lodge and maintain poor young women who were in danger, and to visit the sick poor. In doing this we sought to act with great tenderness in all things, knowing that generosity is not in bestowing gifts but in bestowing ourselves most freely.
My Sisters came here to Parramatta from Liverpool in 1874 and from Callan in 1888, long after I had gone to God. Inspired by God’s mercy and love, they too care for the poor, the sick and the powerless. Today this work continues, often by lay people who, like me, never wanted to be nuns but who want to serve the poor because that is what God is asking of them.
May God in His mercy, bless and protect you all.
Your most affectionate,
Catherine McAuley
(Text created from historical context and primary sources)
Image: Front Door of Catherine’s House of Mercy Baggot St. Dublin
Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy
Catherine McAuley was born in c 1778 into a Dublin deeply divided between rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, the English ruling minority and the oppressed Irish majority. The penal (or “popery”) laws, aimed at reducing the power and influence of Catholic Irish leaders, were being relaxed; however, Irish Catholics still had no legislative voice and poverty, unemployment, overcrowding and disease were rampant in the Irish parts of Dublin and in the rural areas.
In this divided world, Catherine felt called by God to help the poor and in 1823, when she unexpectedly inherited a fortune from her employer, William Callaghan, she put into place a plan to build a house of refuge, education and employment for poor women and girls.
Her original vision was that lay women, like herself, would commit a portion of their lives to assist with the work but the idea of a community of lay women over whom the church hierarchy had no control, was repugnant to church authorities. In order to continue her work with the poor, Catherine agreed to found a religious congregation, on the condition that its members should not be confined in convents but would be free to walk the streets, serving the poor wherever they were to be found. On December 12, 1831, Catherine McAuley and her two companions, Mary Ann Doyle and Elizabeth Harley took their vows as the first Sisters of Mercy.
Sisters of Mercy in Australia
In 1846, fifteen years after the formation of the Congregation, one of Catherine’s early companions, Ursula Frayne, brought the Sisters of Mercy to Australia with a foundation in Perth. Over the next fifty years more foundations were made throughout Australia. In 1888, a group of Catherine’s Sisters from Callan, Kilkenny, would found a Mercy congregation in the struggling convict settlement of Parramatta, New South Wales. These Foundation Sisters built on the work of the North Sydney Sisters of Mercy who had ministered in Parramatta for the previous fourteen years. Today, there are 4 congregations of Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea – Sisters of Mercy Brisbane, Sisters of Mercy North Sydney, Sisters of Mercy Parramatta and The Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Mercy Works is the development arm of these congregations. It works with vulnerable communities within Australia and in The Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. Its programs, which focus predominantly on women and children, seek to support communities in building capacity, self-reliance and environmental sustainability.
Image: Mercy Works –Memeyok Village and project staff in front of the new tank, Kiunga, PNG
