History

The Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia

The Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia was formed in 1981. Its inspiration is drawn from Catherine McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland in 1831 and the many women of faith and courage who have followed in her footsteps.

Our current structure is in a challenging and exciting phase of being re-imagined. At our last Chapter in 2004, we committed ourselves to engage wholeheartedly in the processes of reconfiguring our Institute.

Reconfiguring is not a new experience for Sisters of Mercy of the Australian Institute. In one sense, our reconfiguring story began soon after the Sisters of Mercy first came to Australia in 1846.

Since then there have been 52 autonomous foundations; 18 from overseas and 34 from within the country. Over the decades, these evolved one way or another, into the present Institute structure of 17 congregations in Australia, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea and a foundation in Pakistan.

Member congregations of the Institute are the Sisters of Mercy of Adelaide, Ballarat East, Bathurst, Brisbane, Cairns, Goulburn, Grafton, Gunnedah, Melbourne, North Sydney, Parramatta, Perth, Rockhampton, Singleton, Townsville, West Perth and Wilcannia-Forbes, with an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea and a foundation in Pakistan.

Sisters of Mercy Arrive in Australia

The first group of sisters, led by Ursula Frayne, came from Dublin settled in Victoria Square, Perth, Australia in 1846.

Unusually rapid growth occurred as sisters responded to the demands of a pioneering society. The foundations listed below form the bases of the present congregations in Australia.

Foundresses

1857	Ursula Frayne and 3 sisters came from Perth (WA) to Fitzroy (Melbourne) Victoria. Sisters made separate foundations in Geelong (1859) [from Dublin] and Warrnambool (1872) [from Ballyjamesduff]. Later these joined with the Melbourne group.
1859	Mother Mary Ignatius Murphy and 6 sisters came from Westport in County Mayo, Ireland to Goulburn, New South Wales.
1861	Mother Mary Vincent Whitty and 6 sisters came from Dublin to Brisbane, Queensland.
1865	Mother Mary Ignatius McQuoin and 3 sisters came from Liverpool, England to Church Hill, Sydney, New South Wales.
1866	Mother Mary Ignatius Croke and 6 sisters came from Charleville, County Cork, Ireland to Bathurst, New South Wales.
1873	Mother Mary de Sales Gorry and 8 sisters came from Brisbane to Rockhampton, Queensland.
1875	Mother Mary Stanislaus Kenny and 10 sisters came from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland to Singleton, New South Wales.
1878	Mother Mary Benigina Desmond and 5 sisters came from Brisbane to Townsville, Queensland.
1879	Mother Mary Aloysius O'Driscoll and 4 sisters came from Singleton to Gunnedah, New South Wales.
1880	Mother Mary Evangelista Fitzpatrick and 24 sisters came from the Argentine to Adelaide, South Australia - 12 of whom went to Mount Gambier.
1881	Mother Mary Agnes Graham and 4 sisters came from Warrnambool to Ballarat East, Victoria.
1884	Mother Mary Stanislaus Simson and 8 sisters came from Bermondsey, London to Grafton, New South Wales.
1884	The first of the foundations now forming the Wilcannia-Forbes diocese in NSW was made at Cobar. This congregation is an amalgamation of a number of houses established in the far western districts of New South Wales.
1888	Mother Mary de Sales Meagher and 5 sisters came from Dungarvon in County Waterford, Ireland to Cooktown, Queensland.
1888	Mother Mary Clare Dunphy and 8 sisters came from Callan in County Kilkenny, Ireland to Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales.
1898	Clare Buggy and 5 sisters came from Derry to Victoria Park in Western Australia but later joined the foundation in Victoria Square.

Communities of sisters from these foundations were quickly established throughout the country.

While the traditional ways of living out the Mercy vocation expanded to include the many emerging more specialised ministries in the Church, the sisters continued to have a remarkable bond of unity, forged principally by Catherine’s living spirit and the sister’s observance of her common rule.

By 1954, 17 distinct autonomous groups had been formed from the original foundations in Australia. In that year, eight of the 17 groups - Perth, Melbourne, Goulburn, Bathurst, Singleton, Gunnedah, Adelaide and Wilcannia-Forbes – combined to form the Australian Union of Sisters of Mercy, with one Superior General and Council residing in Canberra.

Three years later, the remaining nine groups formed an Australian Federation of Sisters of Mercy. These were Brisbane, North Sydney, Rockhampton, Townsville, Ballarat East, Grafton, Parramatta, Cairns and West Perth.

Australian Sisters of Mercy made their first overseas foundation to Papua New Guinea in 1956, and in 2006 this foundation was declared an autonomous region within the Australian Institute.

Since 1985, a small community of Australian Sisters of Mercy has been working in Pakistan.

Irish Origins – Catherine McAuley

The Sisters of Mercy were founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831 by Catherine McAuley. On December 12, 1831, Catherine, with two companions, Elizabeth Harley and Mary-Anne Doyle, made their religious profession in the Presentation Convent of Georges Hill, Dublin where they had spent the previous year of the novitiate. On that day Archbishop Daniel Murray formally blessed the first Convent of Mercy at the House of Mercy in Baggot Street which Catherine had built with her inheritance from the Callahan Estate and opened in 1827. He appointed Catherine as superior, and a month later, received as the first Mercy novices seven of Catherine’s companions who had worked with her from the beginning of ministry in the House of Mercy.

Catherine’s concept of a Religious Institute included ministry not typical of that time. Called to serve Christ as the complex social needs demanded, and encouraged by the Archbishop, Catherine and her companions took as their special works the instruction of poor girls, visitation of the sick and the protection of distressed women of good character.

Without the confines of strict enclosure, the “walking nuns”, as they were called, became part of many dioceses, inspiring local young women to see and meet local needs, enabling the new order to spread rapidly.

By the time of Catherine’s death on November 11, 1841, there were ten houses of Mercy in Ireland and two autonomous foundations in England all of which were united by the same rule.

In that same year, the original Rule and Constitutions were formally approved by Pope Gregory XVI. The Institute spread to other continents, each foundation being given local autonomy to enable the sisters to answer appropriately the local needs.

The instruction of poor girls broadened to include the education of boys and of adults. Parochial schools, select schools, boarding schools, industrial schools, and schools of nursing education became part of Mercy establishments. Visitation of the sick widened into care of the sick, in hospitals, private homes or homes for aged people, and included those whose sickness or poverty was spiritual more than physical.

Find out more about Catherine McAuley.