Catherine McAuley

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The Venerable Mother Catherine Elizabeth McAuley (1787-1841) was an Irish nun, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831. The Order has always been associated with teaching, especially in Ireland, where the nuns taught Catholics (and at times Protestants) at a time when education was mainly reserved for members of the established Church of Ireland.

Catherine McAuley as depicted on the £5 note of Series C Banknotes of Ireland.

Catherine McAuley was born in Ireland on September 29, 1787. Her father was a prosperous Catholic gentleman which was unusual at that time for Catholics were not allowed to own property or hold good jobs. Though he died when Catherine was very young, she learned from him great compassion for the troubles of people who are poor. When she inherited a considerable fortune at the age of 48, she chose to use it to build a house where she and other compassionate women could take in homeless women and provide care and an education for them and their children.

She never intended to found a community of religious women. The church (clergy and people) of the time, however, were not supportive of groups of lay women working independently of church structures. Catherine's clerical mentor urged her to form a religious Institute. Catherine and two other women entered the formation program of the Presentation Sisters to formally prepare for life as women religious. At the end of one year they professed vows and returned to the House of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy consider December 12, 1831 the day of their founding as a religious community.

Catherine lived only ten years as a Sister of Mercy but, in that time, she had established 12 foundations in Ireland and two in England. When she died there were 150 Sisters of Mercy. Shortly thereafter, small groups of sisters left Ireland to establish new foundations on the east and west coasts of the United States, in Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina.

Total worldwide vowed membership is about 10,000. Mercy International Centre in Dublin, Ireland is the international "home" of Sisters of Mercy worldwide.

In 1978, the cause for the beatification of the Servant of God Catherine McAuley was opened by Pope Paul VI, and in 1990, upon recognition of her heroic virtues, Pope John Paul II declared her Venerable. This places her on the path towards possible sainthood. Catherine McAuley Primary School, Craigmore, South Australia, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School in Chicago, Catherine McAuley Westmead, Australia, McAuley Catholic College in Grafton, Australia, McAuley High School in Cincinnati, OH,Catherine McAuley High School in Portland, Maine, Catherine McAuley High School, Brooklyn, NY, and The McAuley School in Doncaster, South Yorkshire are named for her.