Sisters of Mercy


The Sisters of Mercy was founded in Dublin in 1831by Catherine McAuley (1777 - 1841). Ireland was then ruled by England and administered by a Protestant minority. Catholics were subject to very restrictive laws and were unable to educate their children unless wealthy enough to send them to Europe or employ a governess. Catherine later said 'I never wanted to become a nun. I only wanted to serve the poor, since that seemed to be what God expected of me.'   In 1827, she had invested part of her inheritance of £25,000 in a large corner block in Baggot Street, a fashionable part of Dublin, and built schoolrooms, a dormitory and a chapel within a structure that she called the 'House of Mercy'. The school rooms were for poor girls to receive an education and religious instruction and the dormitory was to provide a refuge for unemployed servant girls. Catherine wanted an overtly Catholic organisation to be based in the open, in support of Daniel O'Connell's prolonged campaign for Catholic emancipation which was finally successful in 1829.

In the early 19th century, a group of women going about the streets of the slum areas without chaperones and without the protection of formal church sanction, ran the risk of incurring public censure. So Catherine followed Archbishop Murray's advice – to regularise her activities by turning her group into a religious congregation – provided that she and her companions would not be restricted in their activities and that, unlike the Sisters of Charity, they could take permanent vows. Catherine and two companions went through a formal novitiate at the Presentation Convent in George's Hill, Dublin and the date of their Profession is also the date of the official establishment of the Sisters of Mercy. Though Catherine believed in providing religious instruction, she believed that preaching the Gospel had limited effect unless preceded or accompanied by the provision of food, a bed, literacy and a profession. Not only did she create a new Order of nuns, she brought them into public view. The Sisters became known as the 'walking nuns', a term often used derisively by their critics.

The three principal objects of the Sisters of Mercy were the education of poor girls, visitation of the sick, and protection of poor women of good character. The Sisters' dedication to the sick, poor, uneducated and women in need , attracted many young women to join them.

The Sisters of Mercy were brought to Australia by Sr Ursula Frayne. Clara Mary Frayne was born in Dublin in 1817 and was 14 when the Order commenced. She had some contact with the sisters and entered the Baggot Street community on 2 July 1834, aged sixteen. After the customary six months' probation as a postulant, Clara received the Holy Habit of a novice on 20 January 1835. Her Mistress of Novices for the next two years was Catherine McAuley and, on 25 January 1837, Clara became a fully professed Sister of Mercy, choosing the name in Religion of Ursula.

In 1845, after having established new convents in Dublin and St John's, Newfoundland, Ursula Frayne was selected as Superior with five other sisters to minister to the needs of the poor Aborigines in Australia, in response to a call from Bishop Brady of Perth, WA.  Our Lady of Mercy of the Holy Cross convent in Perth was formally blessed in January 1846, when the white population was about 4500, of whom only 337 were Catholics. Their work was successful and they soon moved to larger premises, and other branches.  However, petty difficulties arose between Ursula and the Bishop (who was later ex-communicated) and with his successor.  Ursula resigned as Mother Superior in 1856, but later accepted an invitation to establish a branch in Melbourne. In he remaining 25 years, Ursula established convents at Nicholson St, West Collingwood,  Emerald Hill and Kilmore.

The Sisters arrived in Sydney from Liverpool, England in November 1865 and established their first Convent and School at The Rocks, Church Hill.  Today the Sisters of Mercy, North Sydney endeavour to answer the cry of the poor and the disadvantaged with tender compassion, faithful love and practical service in education, welfare and the care of the sick and aged, both in Australia and overseas. Faithful to Catherine McAuley's commitment to the Education of women and girls, the Sisters of Mercy and their colleagues are educating girls at Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College, Erskineville, Chatswood & Enfield.

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