The 24th September, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, is our Patronal Feast and I thought it might be helpful to reflect on the life of Venerable Catherine McAuley, our Foundress, since Mercy was Catherine’s overwhelming characteristic.
On the 29th of September 1778 in Stormanstown House Dublin, Catherine Elizabeth McAuley was born to her parents James and Elinor McAuley, both devout Catholics. Catherine’s early years were happy, secure and comfortable in a loving family, with an older sister Mary and a younger brother James. Sadly, when Catherine was less than five years old, her father James, died leaving her mother inadequate in handling the family’s business and the finances. Elinor McAuley was young and impressionable and greatly influenced by people of means who were mainly Protestants who looked on Catholics as poor, depressed, uneducated and downtrodden by three centuries of penal servitude. While James McAuley was alive his wife, Elinor, was a practising Catholic sustained by her husband’s sincerity and devotion, but sadly the death of James’ changed everything. Elinor squandered his money and sold off valuable property to enable her to maintain a high lifestyle and she associated with ill-advised friends who did not agree with her Catholic beliefs. The family was reduced to sharing accommodation with friends but on the death of Elinor, Catherine and James were homeless regularly using the floor for a bed.
Eventually Catherine and her siblings were taken in by a kind and caring cousin, Dr Armstrong, who was a staunch Protestant and expected all who shared his home to share his beliefs. Catherine remained steadfast in her Catholic Faith while her siblings followed the beliefs of Dr Armstrong. This was a trying time for Catherine as mealtimes, especially when guests were present, were used to ridicule the Catholic faith based on Theological discussions. The survival of Catherine’s faith was nothing short of a miracle. In these circumstances Catherine remained polite, ladylike, gracious and ever grateful for the care and protection of Dr Armstrong. God acts in mysterious ways because it was through remaining in Dr Armstrong’s household that Catherine met the Callaghan’s and was eventually adopted by Mr and Mrs Callaghan and eventually lived with them in Coolock House for twenty years. When both became frail and elderly Catherine proved to be a blessing as she looked after them with gentleness and compassion. They were devout Protestants and realized their obligation before God to feed the hungry and to be just and caring towards their employees. For them it was a blessing to realize that Catherine had the same sense of justice and concern for the poor and they were delighted to give her the where with to feed the hungry and gather needy children daily in the gatehouse to instruct and feed them. Gradually Catherine realized that the poor needed more than handouts and daily food. They needed education, employment and accommodation and a belief that they had self-worth to lift themselves out of idleness and servitude.
It is through this experience that Catherine’s Mercy Life was budding. She began to follow a regular prayer life and was no longer shy in having religious objects displayed in her room. Little did she know that God was stirring in her heart a desire to make life better for the poor and to give children a sound education with firm instruction in the Catholic Faith. She was a regular visitor to the homes of the poor, destitute and seriously ill in and around Dublin. In her faith she was well supported by a Jesuit priest and grew in confidence to witness to her Catholic Faith in a public manner. Mr Callaghan was quite surprised that she would be well known among such a “Vulgar Sect”, but as often happens time and example change things and in the end both Mrs and Mr Callaghan were so impressed by the peace that Catherine received from the practise of her faith that they asked to be received into the Church , Mrs Callaghan on her death bed and Mr Callaghan following the death of his wife. Much to the annoyance of Mr Callaghan’s relatives he bequeathed all his property and money to Catherine since she made it clear to him that she had no interest in marriage but had a calling to find a house and support a few poor women.
All this fell into shape and Catherine built a property in what became known as 64A Lower Baggot Street. She was very precise in giving details to the builders …she needed large rooms, a chapel and classrooms for poor children in the locality who did not have the opportunity to go to school. With this she requested some small bedrooms for ladies who would like to help her in her vison. Choosing Baggot Street was deliberate as she was of the mind that the poor should be visible to the rich so that the latter would be challenged into believing that the poor need help today and not next week.
In making all these plans Catherine had no guarantee that anyone would wish to join her in her vision, but she trusted in God that if it was His work it would succeed. She once said “IF THIS IS GOD’S WORK IT WILL SUCCEED BUT IF IT IS MIINE THE SOONER IT FALLS TO THE GROUND THE BETTER”
Indeed, it was God’s work because in 1827, five years after the death of Mr Callaghan, her benefactor, the House of Mercy was blessed and opened. Catherine and two assistants, Mary Anne Doyle and Catherine Byrne, took up residence. The first guests for the House of Mercy were two very young girls who were sisters, and the classrooms began to fill with children from the lanes and back streets of Dublin.
The last thing in Catherine’s mind was to establish a Religious Congregation, she merely wanted a few like-minded people to be part of her vision for those in need. Soon the House of Mercy was filled with homeless and needy girls who sought protection. Together with that ministry Catherine and her companions were involved in visiting the sick poor in the local hospitals as well as in their own homes. These were certainly areas of great need, and the church saw with gratitude the amazing work that was being done by Catherine and her followers.
However, not all were approving of the House of Mercy, and it was made clear to Catherine that she was behaving like a Religious Congregation without approval from the Church. To continue this Mercy, work she would have to become a vowed Religious. For this reason, Catherine and two of her companions, Mary Anne Doyle and Elizabeth Harley went to the Presentation Sisters in Georges Hill to follow a Formation Programme. On the 12th December 1831 they made their vows and the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy was born.
On 11th November 1841 Catherine died just a few weeks less than ten years since the Order was founded. In that short time of ten years Catherine left about 150 Sisters in fourteen Foundations 12 in Ireland, Two in England (Bermondsey and Birmingham) and within another 10 years the number of Sisters rose to three thousand and the Order spread far and wide in Ireland, England, Newfoundland, North America, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
This year on the 19th November we are privileged to celebrate the 185th anniversary of the arrival of Catherine and 5 Sisters to Bermondsey. Among the group was Mother Clare Moore who accompanied Florence Nightingale to the Crimea. History tells us that the sisters arrived from Liverpool by train to London and that they walked down Tooley Street at 7pm in the pouring rain to an unfinished and unheated Pugin Building. It is said that they had a hot cup of tea and went to bed. Catherine was not impressed by Pugin’s architecture as she is supposed to have said “I DO NOT LIKE THIS MR PUGIN HE IS DETERMINED THAT WE DO NOT LOOK OUT OF THE WINDOWS”.
The Sisters did not hide behind the Convent walls. They went out into the Community helping the poor and visiting the sick at home and in St Thomas‘Hospital. The local Mill Street at the time was an infested slum where Dickens got his inspiration to write Oliver Twist and today if one wished to buy a property there one would need two million pounds in the bank! Catherine stayed one month with the Community leaving Clare Moore as the Superior. During that month Catherine received new recruits into the Community among them was Lady Barbara Eyre who took the name of Sister De Sales. On her Reception Day there were many of the nobility present with 100 poor girls from the parish for whom Catherine and the sisters had made new dresses. Again, another opportunity for Catherine to make the poor visible to the rich.
Sadly, the Pugin Building was bombed on March 2nd, 1945, and 3 priests in the Presbytery next door were killed. One of the priests, Canon Arbuthnot, was pulled out of the rubble by the milkman and glass regularly had to be removed from his face until he died many years later in St Mary’s Home in Worthing.
The Current Convent was built post-World War 2 and officially opened on the 19th of November 1958. It is not on the site of the Pugin Building as the Locally Authority decided to open the road between Tooley Street and Jamacia Road which made Parker’s Row redundant as the main road. The parish Priest, Canon McManus, suggested that the Sisters exchange their site with the Church making Most Holy Trinity prominent on the main Road and the Convent more secluded on Parker’s Row
During this year of 2024, we will remember the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Convent in Eltham and we have already anticipated the 150th Anniversary of the death of Mother Clare Moore with a Mass of thanksgiving at St George’s Cathedral. It is our intention to have a Mercy Day Celebration with Mass at 10.30 am in the Church and a Celebratory Meal at 1.00pm with Sisters from Communities nearby joining us for the day.
FOR ALL THAT HAS BEEN WE GIVE THANKS AND FOR WHAT WILL BE WE SAY YES
(Sr Assumpta 20/9/24)
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