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Have you ever wondered what Catherine McAuley was really like? Sometimes time and history make it difficult to get a full picture of her as a person. Fortunately for us we do have descriptions of Catherine McAuley from those who worked alongside her in the early years of the foundation at Baggot Street.
The first is from Mary Vincent (Ellen) Whitty (1819-1892) who established the Sisters of Mercy in Brisbane Australia:
If you had known her, dearest Reverend Mother, how you would have loved and venerated her, and still, be as familiar with her as with an intimate friend. I have often wished her lovely character could be photographed for the admiration and instruction of posterity. It seems to be that words are slow and imperfect in conveying all the lineaments of that gifted soul - she was so humble yet dignified, so playful and witty, yet reserved and charitable, so pious and strict, yet amiable and kind, but to me at least the climax of her attraction was that she was always the same, always ready to listen, to consider and to direct whenever applied to…
(letter 24 September 1860, in Hetherington. A. rsm and Smoothy.P. rsm. 2011. The Correspondence of Mother Vincent Whitty. 117)
Mary Francis Warde was a friend of Catherine’s niece who was one of the first professed Sisters of Mercy:
I knew her better than I have known anybody in my life. She was a woman of God and God made her a woman of vision. She showed me what it meant to be a Sister of Mercy, to see the world and its people in terms of God’s love; to love everyone who needed love, to care for everyone who needed care. Now her vision is driving me on. It is a glorious thing to be a Sister of Mercy .
(From Frances Warde’s Letter to Sr. Mary Gonzaga O’Brien, 1879.)
ENDS
Caroline Thompson, Head of Heritage and Spirituality.