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Daniel Murray became a Roman catholic Father in 1792. He became the Archbishop of Dublin in 1825.
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Mary Aikenhead was born in Cork in 1787. Her father, Dr David Aikenhead, was an apothecary and a member of the Church of Ireland. Her mother, Mary Stackpole, was from a Roman Catholic aristocrat family
As a chid, Mary was fostered out to John and Mary Rourke, a poor Roman Catholic couple. -
In 1801, when Mary was 15, her father died. Mrs Gorman, Mary's Aunt cared for her and often took Mary to mass with her. A sermon preached on Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus was a turning point for Mary. She learned of the message of God's deep love and compassion for the forgotten, the unwanted, and the despised. She decided to become a Roman Catholic, and after a course of instruction, Mary was received into the church in 1802.
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In 1807 she shared her dream of an order of religious women committed to the service of the poor.
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Bishop of Dublin and asked Mary to take responsibility for a new order of nuns, looking after the poor. She accepted and travelled to the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in York to receive spiritual formation in an established religious order. Mary returned to Dublin in 1815. Because the new order had not yet been formally established, Mary could not wear a formal religious habit so she dressed in a simple black dress and muslin cap.
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Bishop Polding asked Mary Aikenhead, to send Sisters of Charity from Ireland to Australia to help women convicts.Five volunteered and, after a long journey on the Francis Spaight, arrived in Sydney on the last day of 1838.
In January 1839 the Sisters lived at Parramatta and visited the Female Factory where many women convicts lived and worked for the government.
The Sisters’ main concern was religious instruction and to care of the sick and the poor. -
From January 1839 the Sisters lived in Parramatta and visited the Female Factory where many women convicts lived and worked for the government.
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Sisters to go to Tasmania but many deaths and poverty kept them from expanding there until 1847. Three Sisters stayed in Parrramatta.
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St Vincent’s Hospital in Australia was established with the treatment of its first outpatient on August 25, 1857. The only prerequisites for admission were sickness and poverty; it was open to people of all creeds and cultures.
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Sr Maurus was born on 29th of August 1878.
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She was the first Female Religious to make public Profession of Vows in the young Colony. In 1871 Sister Xavier Williams became the Mother Superior of the Tasmanian Sisters of Charity. She was 92 years old
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One of Sr. Margaret Mary’s first assignments was teaching 2nd graders in a poor area of Dublin City. Like our foundress, Mother Mary Aikenhead, Margaret had a great love and respect for the poor.
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Country hospitals were established in Toowoomba, Lismore, Bathurst, Cootamundra in the years 1920-38, with Toowoomba the only country location now under St. Vincent’s Health Australia.
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Hospices for the terminally ill were commenced, in response to need, in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
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In 1921, Pope Benedict XV agreed to her beatification, the step before canonisation to sainthood. In 1958, the Irish Government issued a stamp to commemorate her life’s work.
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In 1967, a Sister of Charity was appointed to the staff of the Gaol Chaplaincy
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Sister Ignatius Jenkins, affectionately known as ‘Connie’, was involved with the Aboriginal community of Redfern and the metropolitan area of Sydney in the 1970’s.
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in 1987, another became Assistant Director of Nursing at the Long Bay Gaol Hospital.
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In an effort to prevent the rise of homelessness amongst those released from prison, Blake Cottage was established in 2003 in association with VACRO (Victorian Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders)to provide hospitality to the families visiting prisoners in two Victorian Regional prisons, Loddon and Tarrengower.
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On Thursday evening, 21st June 2012, the Diocese of Toowoomba celebrated the ministry of service that the Sisters of Charity of Australia have offered in the Diocese since Mother M. Berchmans Daly first began planning for the establishment of St Vincent’s Hospital in the city of Toowoomba.
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Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Congregations of Religious Australia, Queensland (CRAQld). Sr Margraret Mines RSC reflects on her life with the Sisters of Charity.
