Foundress
(Foundress of the Religious Sisters of Mercy)
Life and Charism of Venerable
CATHERINE
MCAULEY
Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin, Ireland on September 29, 1778. After the death of her parents, Catherine went to live with relatives who embodied the strong anti-Catholic atmosphere of the times. This was a difficult trial for Catherine, but through it she developed a spirituality based on God’s Mercy. She found “peace in the Cross, joy in suffering, prayer in action and action in prayer” (Bolster, “Catherine McAuley”). Catherine sought to provide solace to sick and needy families, to train young girls for employment and to instruct poor children.
When Catherine was twenty-five, a retired Quaker couple invited her to live with them. Catherine proved to be a loving companion and holy example to them.
On their death beds, they converted to Catholicism, and bequeathed their estate to her. With this inheritance, Catherine built a house on Baggot Street, Dublin as a home for poor girls. This first House of Mercy opened on September 24, 1827, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. Her work with the poor and destitute led Catherine to desire a life of total consecration to Our Lord. Encouraged by the Archbishop, Catherine and two other women professed vows on December 12, 1831, and began the Religious Institute of the Sisters of Mercy. Often seen walking the streets to serve the sick and the poor, the “walking nuns” inspired many women to dedicate themselves to Christ and to the service of the Church, causing the Institute to spread rapidly.
In 1841, the year of Catherine’s death, Pope Gregory XVI formally approved the rule and Constitutions of the Institute. In 1926, its status as an institute of Pontifical Right was confirmed by the Holy See.
In ten years of her religious life, Catherine founded ten convents in Ireland and two in England. At the end of her life looking to the future, said “if the order is my work, the sooner it falls to the ground, the better, if it is God’s work it needs no one.”
Since then the Institute has spread to all continents in the world.
Foundation of the Religious Sisters of Mercy in the Philippines
at Holy Infant College of Tacloban City, Inc.
In 1954, Marian Year was proclaimed merely a decade after the Philippines was liberated from the Japanese forces. Then on February 1, 1954, the Bishop of Palo, Monsignor Lino Gonzaga invited the Sisters from St, Maries of the Isle, Cork, Ireland, with the approval of Bishop Cornelius Lucey of the Diocese of Cork and Ross to administer Holy Infant College of Tacloban City, Inc. in Tacloban, Leyte Philippines.
On September 23, the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, six Irish Sisters of Mercy from St. Maries of the Isle arrived Tacloban, Leyte to pioneer a foundation in the Philippines.
In 1956, Filipino candidates were accepted for formation in Ireland, and in 1968 formation started in Tacloban City.
On July 25, 1981, the Congregation in the Philippines received the Rescript for its status as canonically autonomous community by the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes in Rome.
On April 21 to May 15. 1982 the first house chapter formulated Statutes.
On April 20-25 and December 20, 1992 the third chapter formulated Resolutions.
On April 1-6, 1997, the fourth chapter formulated the Constitutions for the Religious Sisters of Mercy in the Philippines – a milestone in the Congregation’s history.