6/17 - Saint Francis of Assisi Parish

This month we honor and show our support for all the
women religious in our community, who faithfully worship
with us, and who are a vital part of our parish, our
diocese, and the Sacramento area. We have placed images of
the foundresses of their religious communi� es in the shrine
of Our Lady of Lourdes and Fa� ma
on the friary side of the church. This
week, we honor Catherine McAuley,
foundress of the Sisters of Mercy.
Catherine McAuley was born
in Dublin, Ireland in 1778. Her
father died when Catherine was 5;
her mother died 15 years later. As
a young adult she began work in
the home of an elderly, childless,
Quaker couple, William and Catherine
Callaghan, as a companion
and manager of household aff airs.
They encouraged Catherine
in her compassion and service for
people who were in need. She
began to see how poverty aff ected
abused domes� c women and homeless
girls. The Callaghans willed their
home and a large sum of money to
Catherine, who served the poor from this house for another
six years.
During this � me, Catherine consulted priest friends, as
well as the Sisters of Charity, about how best to meet the
needs of those who came to her. She was not interested in
affi lia� ng with a religious community or beginning a new one,
as some parts of convent life did not suit her or facilitate the
work to which she felt called.
Finally Catherine decided to use her inheritance to lease
a property on Baggot Street in Dublin, and to build a house
providing religious, educa� onal and social services for women
and children. In 1827, the House of Mercy opened. Her cousin
Catherine Byrrn and friend Anna Doyle joined her.
“The simplest and most prac� cal lesson I know… is to resolve
to be good today, but be� er tomorrow… thus we may hope
to get on taking short, careful steps, not great strides.”
That same year her sister Mary died of consump� on, leaving
fi ve children and husband William. When William died two
years later, Catherine placed her nephews in a good boarding
school, and took the girls with her to live at Baggot Street. She
had already adopted and was caring for her deceased cousin’s
two children; she would adopt two more children: Ellen, who
was an orphan, and Ann, a homeless child.
Though the Archbishop of Dublin fully supported her efforts,
she met with diffi cul� es early on: she was called an upstart;
neighbors didn’t appreciate le� ers begging for blankets
and clothes; there were suspicions about her way of life and
fi tness for the work, more suited to clergy, and some jealousy
that a new ministry was even beginning; and fi nancial support
was sporadic.
“The Lord and Master of our House and Home is a faithful
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Provider. Let us never desire more than enough. He will give
that and a blessing.”
One of her early and long-� me supporters, a priest
named Michael Blake, supported people in need in his parish
ministry. He served porridge every morning to those who
were hungry when he became bishop of Dromore. Blake
encouraged her, and while she was discerning star� ng a new
order, to foster long-term support of her ministry and those
who wanted to join her, he assured her that they could be a
unique community, without enclosure, s� ll reaching out and
being present to those in the streets.
“It is not a disposi� on to bestow gi� s, like benevolent persons
in the world, that bespeaks generosity of mind for the
religious state. It is bestowing ourselves most freely and relying
with unhesita� ng confi dence on the providence of God.”
In 1830 Catherine and two co-workers went to the
nearby Presenta� on Sisters for novi� ate forma� on, culminating
in vows a year and a half later. Catherine was installed as
Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy. Ini� ally insis� ng that
she have no � tle, she fi nally agreed to being called “Mother.”
She welcomed those who wanted to join her work though
they were quite ill and would make their vows very close to
death, and she included lay sisters very early on in her work—
something that many orders never did.
“If we love God, we will undoubtedly love our neighbor
also; they are as cause and eff ect.”
Catherine McAuley and her sisters founded 11 houses
in 10 years. She wrote hundreds of le� ers to her sisters that
were aff ec� onate, humorous and suppor� ve, even in the
midst of the suff erings and diffi cul� es and crosses that come
with new ventures.
“We have one solid comfort amidst this li� le tripping about:
our hearts can always be in the same place, centered in
God, for whom alone we go forward or stay back.”
The Rule of the Sisters of Mercy was confi rmed by Pope
Gregory XVI fi ve months before Catherine’s death of tuberculosis
on November 11, 1841. The Rule was a modifi ed version
of the Presenta� on Sisters’ Rule, with chapters added on visiting
the sick and protec� on of distressed women. Catherine
McAuley was buried at the new cemetery next to Baggot
house, in a simple grave marked with a small cross.
She had two requests of her sisters as she was nearing
eternal life…
“My legacy to the Ins� tute is charity: if you preserve the
peace and union which have never yet been violated
among us, you will feel, even in this world, a happiness
that will surprise you and be to you a foretaste of the bliss
prepared for every one of you in heaven.”
“Get a good cup of tea—I think the community room
would be a good place—when I am gone, and comfort one
another—but God will comfort them.”
Baggot house today serves as the motherhouse of the
order, open to associates, sisters, and those who love Catherine
and the Sisters of Mercy. They s� ll serve tea in the refectory.