Global Organisation

The spirit of the sisterhood Catherine McAuley left behind continued to flourish throughout the nineteenth century. Calls for new foundations came from the Americas. The spread of the congregation in the two decades following her death proved the strength of the seed planted in her lifetime.

The first band arrived in Newfoundland six months after Catherine's death, following requests from the then Bishop Anthony Fleming, who depicted his territory as "a country whose institutions are in their infancy, without a single charitable asylum from one end to the other of an island larger than Ireland, possessing a rapidly increasing population, among whom honesty and sobriety prevail." Trusting that God intended a flourishing Mercy community in Newfoundland, Sister Francis Creedon maintained the works of visitation of the poor and education alone until eventually a host of women dedicated themselves to this call to service.

The pattern of invitation, generous response and difficulties marked the beginnings of most of the endeavours of the Sisters of Mercy during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In spite of the challenges of distances and climate, a remarkable stream of youthful energy flowed from Ireland to these new "colonies" of Mercy, which dispersed to various parts of the world. The situations which drew them were remarkably similar: immigrant peoples, overwhelmed by needs arising from poverty and ignorance, sought help from the religious, "capable of combining personal spirituality with a pioneering spirit of initiative and independence" as Frances Warde, the American foundress of the Sisters of Mercy put it.