Z 1408.000 Order of the Sisters of Mercy, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Papers

Mother Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Order of Sisters of Mercy, was born on the feast of Saint Michael, September 29,1787, at Stormanstown County, Dublin, Ireland. Early in life Catherine experienced grief, for her parents died before she was eleven years old. From this, she learned the great lesson that she practiced during the years of her life—that happiness does not come from the things of this world. She was finally adopted by rich relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Callahan, who provided her with every worldly luxury, but did not let her openly practice her faith until later on. After their death, Catherine found herself an heiress, and after consulting her spiritual advisors, she began plans for an institution for education of children and a temporary home for good women out of institutions. Finally in the southern part of Dublin City, the house was opened on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy. Later the name was changed to the "Institute of Our Blessed Lady of Mercy," and that little band of workers associated with her became known as the Sisters of Mercy. From this came a great migration to other places and as a result an Order was formed in Vicksburg on October 12, 1860, after six Sisters of Mercy left Baltimore in the company of Father Leray.

This collection contains the following material: two typescripts, one concerning the history of the Order of Sisters of Mercy, and the other, Mother M. Anglea Fedou's account of the Sisters of Mercy of Vicksburg during the Yellow Fever epidemic in Edwards in 1879; a thesis entitled, Thy Mercies Will I Sing by Sister M. Ethelbert De Muth, R. S. M., September 24, 1961; and an anonymous diary, November 19,1883–November 1, 1886. Included in this diary is an address to his Holiness Leo XIII from the Catholic Choctaws of Neshoba County on the occasion of his Jubilee and letter of the Bishop at Natchez to the Rector of the American College, Rome, Italy, October 28, 1887.