In 1778, when Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, was born into a Catholic family in Dublin, Catholics were considered vulgar. The law of the land banned Catholic church bells, steeples, and even direct ownership of its cathedrals!
Despite this climate of bigotry, Catherine's father, James McAuley, managed to become an apprentice in the building trades and, ultimately, a landowner. But the persecution he witnessed as a child remained with him. He welcomed the poor of Dublin at his own door, cared for them and taught them about the Catholic faith, much to the dismay of his wife, who feared that James' faith could threaten her social status.
James McAuley died when Catherine was a child, leaving a legacy of faith and generosity. Unable to manage the family’s well being, Catherine’s mother died a few years later, leaving her children without financial support. Catherine, her brother, and her sister were taken in by distant relatives--virtuous people of high principle but contempt for anything Catholic.
Still, Catherine remained faithful to her father’s spirit and, in particular, to his concern for the poor. According to one writer of the time, she "lived in what is usually called good style. . .went into society." But Catherine spent the greater part of her time helping others, especially “in the instruction of poor children."
Catherine's gentle manner won for her loyal friends, and when she was 40, she inherited a fortune from a childless couple that she had befriended. With her fortune, Catherine bought property in an elite Dublin neighborhood. She hired an architect to design a building that would serve her work with poor servant girls and the women who worked to help them prosper. Essentially, she dreamed of creating a corps of Catholic social service workers.
But in 1820s Dublin, women did not live in community without religious vows, free to come and free to go. Catherine’s House of Mercy became the subject of gossip for its "unorthodox character,” even though its residents practiced daily prayer and meditation. To avoid scandal, the archbishop suggested that Catherine establish a religious community. Catherine hesitated, however, since religious women typically lived cloistered lives as opposed to the public service to which Catherine remained so committed.
Eventually, the Pope granted permission for Catherine and her followers, even as religious, to move freely among the poor. Soon, Dubliners dubbed The Mercys “the walking nuns’--the first to walk out from their convents to care for the poor. Unfortunately, the physical demands took their toll: after only 10 years, Catherine died. Generous to the end, she is said to have instructed from her deathbed, ’The sisters are tired; be sure they have a comfortable cup of tea when I am gone.“
It is in that spirit--in the spirit of generosity, of hospitality, of the reverence for each individual that is Catherine McAuley’s legacy—that Mercy Center offers its services.
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