September 19: The Sisters of Mercy

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is September 19th, and our story is The Sisters of Mercy. In 1835, Father Michael O'Connor, a recently ordained priest in Ireland, learned about his country's newest religious order, the Sisters of Mercy. Someone really should establish that order in the United States, he said to himself. Eight years later, O'Connor took his own advice. After his consecration in Rome as the first bishop of Pittsburgh, O'Connor went straight to Ireland. There, he met with the Order's superior and pleaded with her to send sisters with him to Pittsburgh.

She agreed, entrusting the mission to her predecessor, the 36-year-old Mary Frances Xavier Ward. Bishop O'Connor, Mother Ward, and six young Sisters of Mercy set out for America in November 1843. For the duration of their journey, and their first years in the United States, the Sisters shed their habits and wore secular clothing instead. Given the anti-Catholic prejudices of the time, O'Connor thought it safer that way.

Weeks later, when their ship arrived in New York, a small welcoming party greeted them at the docks. Included in that party was Chicago's bishop-elect Father William Quarter. Ward had barely stepped off the boat when Quarter asked if she could spare a few sisters for his diocese. Not yet, she replied.

Three years later, though, the Sisters of Mercy were prepared to extend their work beyond Pittsburgh. On September 19, 1846, Ward and six sisters set out for the frontier city of Chicago. There, they took up residence in the bishop's house, described by Ward's biographer as a small, miserable cottage, while the bishop moved into a wretched hovel with another priest. In short order, the Sisters of Mercy had a school up and running. Ward remained in Chicago several months before returning to Pittsburgh.

Over the next 38 years, Ward repeated her successes in Pittsburgh and Chicago dozens of times, with some cities even volunteering to build the schoolhouses and pay the sisters' salaries. By 1884, the year of Ward's death, nearly 50 Sisters of Mercy communities served the country's Catholic population.

The Sisters of Mercy's willingness to endure discomfort, risk, and prejudice in pursuit of service shows that true faith manifests through action. Identify a local organization, school, or parish where you could volunteer time or resources this week in service to others.

Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, September 20th, for another story of faith and courage in America.