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- Catherine McAuley
- The Venerable Mother Catherine Elizabeth McAuley
(born on September 29, 1778, at Stormanstown House, in Dublin,
Ireland – died November 11, 1841, at the House of Mercy she had
built on Baggot Street, Dublin) was an Irish nun, who founded the
Sisters of Mercy in 1831. The Order has always been associated with
teaching, especially in Ireland, where the nuns taught Catholics
(and at times Protestants) at a time when education was mainly
reserved for members of the established Church of Ireland. Catherine
McAuley's father was prosperous, when she inherited a considerable
fortune at the age of 48, she chose to use it to build a house where
she and other compassionate women could take in homeless women and
children to provide care and an education for them.
- Source: Wikipedia
Sisters of Mercy, Carlow
The Sisters of Mercy were founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland by
Catherine McAuley, a woman who sought, through her service to the poor,
the sick and the uneducated, to reveal the mercy of God in our world.
Catherine’s particular concern for women manifested itself in her
efforts to help women to recognize their inherent dignity, to become
self-directing and self-sustaining. Education was at the heart of this
effort as was a desire to meet needs not being addressed by others.
Thus, when the Sisters of Mercy arrived in Pittsburgh in 1843, their
first ministries arose from the needs presented by this burgeoning city
– education and health care. Saint Mary’s Academy and the Mercy Hospital
of Pittsburgh (now UPMC Mercy) were established within two years of
their arrival.
In the late 1920’s, another need presented itself – the lack of
baccalaureate level education for the Catholic women of the city. After
consultation with the bishop and the heads of the already existing
institutions of higher learning, the Sisters of Mercy founded Mount
Mercy College (now Carlow University) on September 24, 1929.
These Mercy traditions of a particular focus on the concerns of women
and of response to unmet needs have become hallmarks of the University.
Carlow University is now sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of the
Americas through the Conference for Mercy Higher Education. (CMHE) This
Conference, comprised of 16 Mercy sponsored colleges and universities
was created for “the preservation and development of the core Catholic
identity and mission of Mercy higher education in accord with the
spirit, mission and heritage of the Sisters of Mercy”. (CMHE Mission
Statement)
Sisters of Mercy, Pittsburgh
Seventeen years after the Sisters of Mercy order was founded in
Carlow, Ireland, their pioneer in Pittsburgh, Sister Frances Warde with
six others established the order here. The largest English-speaking
order of religious women in the world, the order promptly attracted
local girls with its activity. A private girls' school, St. Mary's
Academy was opened in in addition to the order's primary mission in
caring for the sick and poor. Lack of concern for the sick, a public
issue at that time, was emphasized by epidemics of cholera, smallpox,
and typhoid. The Sisters of Mercy took the initiative in proving a
hospital for the sick of Pittsburgh.
This materialized, Jan. 1, 1847,
when the first permanent hospital west of the Allegheny Mountains and
the first Mercy Hospital in the world was opened by Frances Warde in the
concert hall at St. Mary's. Over the next 16 months, more than 200
patients received care, many of them broken down from Mexican War
service. The sisters did not fare as well as the patients, four of them
dying in several weeks in early 1848, wiping out all the hospital staff
except the administrator.
Other sisters took their places as a wave of
public admiration for the sacrifice of the convent rose. On May 9, 1848,
the Sisters of Mercy opened a new Mercy Hospital on Stevenson Street. In
March 1966, when Pittsburgh celebrated its 150th anniversary as a city,
Frances Warde was named as one of the 10 most outstanding women in its
history. Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review c2007
Source: Terry Curran c2008
