The Sisters of Mercy are a modern congregation founded to serve the poor directly, and their creation involved a deliberate break with the enclosure that had confined religious women.
Catherine McAuley and the House of Mercy
The congregation was founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin in 1831, growing from the House of Mercy she had opened in 1827 to shelter, educate and train poor women and girls. McAuley intended a body of women who would go out to the poor, the sick and the ignorant rather than withdraw behind a grille, and the sisters became known as the walking nuns for their visible presence in the streets and workhouses and hospitals of the city, a novelty that drew both admiration and suspicion. The congregation combined religious life with active works of mercy, from which it took its name.
Education, nursing and reach
The Sisters of Mercy spread with remarkable speed through Ireland, Britain, the United States, Australia and beyond, founding schools, hospitals and refuges, and they became one of the largest and most widely distributed congregations of women in the church. Their work in education and nursing, carried by emigration and by deliberate foundation, made them a major force in the provision of schooling and health care to Catholic populations across the English-speaking world. The congregation continues that active service, still shaped by the founding decision of its foundress to place the works of mercy above the older ideal of enclosure.