Catherine McAuley was born into a wealthy Dublin family in 1778. By the time she had reached adulthood, she had witnessed the death of both parents, and experienced considerable religious uncertainty and turmoil. Driven by a deep faith and pragmatic sense of charity, she opened, in 1827, an institution for unemployed and underprivileged women. This proved to be the first step towards the foundation, in 1831, of the Sisters of Mercy, an order now established on every continent. Catherine McAuley was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1990. The present volume, a collection of some of the most important writings by and about Catherine McAuley, includes letters, memoirs, and annals by many of the first Sisters of Mercy and McAuley's original manuscript of the Rule and Constitutions of the order.
