The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy was founded by Catherine McAuley in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland. The Sisters took as their special concerns the education of girls, visitation of the sick in their homes, and the protection of distressed women of good character. Their attention was on local needs and they soon came to be called the ‘walking nuns’ as they were often seen on their way to and from their visitations. Before Catherine died in 1841, there were Sisters of Mercy working in 12 towns in Ireland and two in England. The Sisters at that time were involved in school-based and adult education, the care of the sick in hospitals, and the establishment of homes for orphans, the aged and disadvantaged.
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