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Our Foundresses
In 1831, Catherine McAuley founded the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland. A deeply religious woman of comfortable means, she sought to extend the Catholic Church's ministries of healing and teaching to the poor, the sick, the uneducated and those who were ostracized by society. Since her death in 1841, Catherine's congregation of women religious has become one of the largest ever established in the English-speaking world.
The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor were founded by Frances Schervier in Aachen, Germany in 1845. From an early age, Frances fed and clothed the poor. She set up a soup kitchen, undertook night watch with the ill and comforted the dying. Later, a friend told Frances of a dream she had in which Frances was to found a religious congregation. By 1845, the dream had become a reality.
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