Half-century after her death, effort for Merrick's sainthood proceeds

Published: 2005-01-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Fifty years to the day after her death, Washingtonians gathered Jan. 10 to celebrate the life of Mary Virginia Merrick, who may become the first recognized saint from the nation's capital. When she died on Jan. 10, 1955, at the age of 88, Merrick was nationally known for her outreach to children in need as the founder of the Christ Child Society. Although paralyzed in a fall as a teen, she had the faith and determination to start a movement that grew to include chapters across the country and offered special centers and summer camps for poor children. Her work began in a simple way, when Merrick inspired family members and friends to sew clothes for a poor family's baby. Today the National Christ Child Society includes 40 chapters nationwide with 7,000 members who continue Merrick's work on behalf of children. About 100 supporters of her cause for sainthood gathered Jan. 10 at St. Aloysius in Washington, the church where she had been baptized and received her first Communion, and where her parents were married. Jesuit Father Robert Drinan, the homilist at the Mass, noted that Merrick founded the group in 1887 at the age of 21, with a conviction that she spelled out many times in letters and statements, that "we should love and help every child because that child is another Christ Child." Father Drinan, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, added, "Loving and helping children is the very essence of our faith."

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