By Sr. Frances Anne Cook

For well over a century, Sisters of Mercy have been active in the life of the Church in Atlanta. For nearly 30 years, they were the only religious women here. Rev. J.F. O’Neill, Jr., the first priest officially assigned to Atlanta, asked the Sisters of Mercy to come to North Georgia so that the corporal works of mercy would be more visible. In 1866, the sisters arrived, and began conducting Immaculate Conception Academy for orphans, boarders and day students.

With a capital of 50 cents and a 10-bed capacity, Sisters of Mercy began operating the first hospital in Atlanta in 1880. “The Atlanta Hospital” opened in a converted residence on Courtland Street. Within 10 years, it was incorporated as St. Joseph Infirmary, and a small number of nursing sisters joined Sister M. Cecelia, the “missionary” to Atlanta from Savannah.

These pioneering nurses and teachers were living witnesses to the goals of the Mercy community. As stated in “The Mercy Covenant,” the sisters’ rule of life, “The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, founded by Catherine McAuley, is a religious apostolic community of women publicly consecrated to God in the Church and inspired by God to extend the Church’s ministries of teaching and healing.”

Today, inspired by a rich tradition and challenged by new needs in the Church and the world, Sisters of Mercy continue in the spirit of the community, which the” Covenant” goes on to describe as “compassion for the dispossessed; the poor, sick, the uneducated, and all those in any way wounded by contemporary society.”

From their foundress, a spirited Irish gentlewoman, Sisters of Mercy inherit a unique perspective which calls them to be, at the same time, preservers of the accumulated wisdom of the past and pioneers at the cutting edge of the future.

Catherine McAuley assumed this perspective in her life and her work, and left it as a gift to her community. In 19^th century Dublin, she attended to the education of the poor, and the care of their sick and dying, while working vigorously to overturn the unjust and oppressive treatment of young homeless women.

In her own words, Catherine McAuley’s legacy to her sisters was charity –a charity that would not only inform all their work, but be the source of the strength. Understanding that the gospel call to action follows from the Gospel call to love, Sisters of Mercy give witness to the possibility of genuine Christian love.

The religious community is “home,” but the Sisters of Mercy recognizes herself as a member of many communities. Within the Church, and within other civic and social communities of which she is a member, it is her goal to give witness to God’s loving presence among men and to the human hope for a better world, no matter what her specific task in ministering to others.

Today, Sisters of Mercy give witness to this presence and hope as they continue to respond to the call of God and the needs of mankind. With an understanding of service that is rooted in a deep personal and communal surrender to God, the community still claims education and health care as central to their apostolate.

Sisters of Mercy are contributing their professional competence at all levels of these ministries, from hospital and university administration through direct bedside care and early childhood education. They are also exploring new dimensions in medicine, in parish and social work, childcare, youth ministry and services to the aging.

The presence of the Sisters of Mercy in Atlanta is part of a much larger picture. They are at work throughout Georgia, as members of the Province of Baltimore, which serves the state. The 420 sisters of the Baltimore province are themselves a group of the network of Sisters of Mercy presently in the United States. Naïve and missioned sisters are also working among the people of Honduras, Argentina, Guyana, Chile, Peru and Jamaica.

Women who wish to share the life and work of Sisters of Mercy spend time living and working with the community while discerning their vocation and learning to know the religious community they feel called to join. Introduction to life styles, apostolic services and the heritage of the Mercy community is provided, while the affiliate continues to develop her prayer life.

With formal acceptance as a member of the Sisters of Mercy, the sister consecrates her life through the vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience. The vow of celibacy becomes her unique way of loving, as she makes a positive gift of herself to God for others.

Through the vow of poverty, the Sister of Mercy is challenged to rise above the compulsion for consumption, to value persons over things, and to live serenely in an affluent society, without being utilized by its forces of promotion and production.

In a life of obedience, Sisters of Mercy search out the will of the Father in their lives together.

The three vows give testimony to the fact that, in a radical way, the Sister of Mercy belongs to God, and to God’s people.