Mother Mary Frances Aikenhead (19 January 1787 – 22 July 1858) was born in Daunt's Square off
Grand Parade,
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Described as one of nursing's greatest leaders, she was the founder of the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
religious institute, the
Religious Sisters of Charity The Religious Sisters of Charity or Irish Sisters of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded by Mary Aikenhead in Ireland on 15 January 1815. Its motto is ('The love Christ urges us on'; ).
The institute has its headquarters in Dub ...
, the
Sisters of Charity of Australia
The Sisters of Charity of Australia (who use the postnominal initials of RSC) is a congregation of religious sisters in the Catholic Church who have served the people of Australia since 1838.
History
Mother Mary Aikenhead, who had founded the R ...
, and of
St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.
Biography
The daughter of David Aikenhead, a physician, member of the
Anglican Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...
, and Mary Stacpole, a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
. Her grandfather, also named David Aikenhead, was a Scottish gentleman who relinquished his military profession, married a Limerick lady, Miss Anne Wight and settled in Cork.
[Twohig RSC, Miriam. "A Short Synopsis of the Life of Mother Mary Aikenhead"]
/ref> Mary was baptised in the Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
on 4 April 1787. Mary was quite frail and probably considered to be asthmatic and it was recommended that she be fostered with a nanny called Mary Rourke who lived on higher ground on Eason's Hill, Shandon, Cork. It is thought that Mary was secretly baptised a Catholic from this early age by Mary Rourke who was a devout Catholic. Her parents would visit every week until 1793 when her father decided he wanted her to rejoin the family in Daunt's Square.[Blake, Donal S. (2001). "Mary Aikenhead Servant of the Poor", Religious Sisters of Charity] The Rourkes also joined the family and worked as servants to the family.
By the early 1790s Dr. Aikenhead had become interested in the principles of the United Irishmen
The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional refor ...
. On one occasion Lord Edward Fitzgerald
Lord Edward FitzGerald (15 October 1763 – 4 June 1798) was an Irish aristocrat who abandoned his prospects as a distinguished veteran of British service in the American War of Independence, and as an Irish Parliamentarian, to embrace the caus ...
disguised as a Quaker sought refuge in the Aikenhead home. He was enjoying dinner with the family when the house was surrounded by troops with the sheriff at their head. The visitor managed to disappear and reach safety across the river. The house was searched but because of the loyalty of his apprentices who knew and kept the doctor's secret, no incriminating documents were found.[
At about the age of nine Mary began to spend a good deal of time visiting her maternal grandmother, where she was exposed to Catholic beliefs and practice through her widowed aunt, Mrs. Gorman. After her father retired, he became ill and was received into the Roman Catholic Church before dying on 15 December 1801. Six months later, at the age of fifteen, Mary was baptised a Roman Catholic on 6 June 1802.
In 1808, Mary went to stay with her friend Anne O’Brien in Dublin. Here she witnessed widespread unemployment and poverty and soon began to accompany her friend in visiting the poor and sick in their homes.]["Mary Aikenhead", Mary Aikenhead Ministries]
/ref>
She was active in works of charity but she had failed to find a religious institute devoted to charitable work. She shared this idea with Archbishop Murray, Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
Coadjutor of Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
who was a friend of O'Brian. Murray returned later and said that he would bring a French order to Ireland if Aikenhead would lead it. To prepare for this task she became a novice from 1812 to 1815 in the Convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin at Micklegate Bar
York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as York City Wal ...
, York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
.[ She there assumed the name she kept until death, Sister Mary Augustine, though always known to the world as "Mrs. Aikenhead".][ `
On 1 September 1815, the first members of the new institute took their vows, Sister Mary Augustine being appointed ]Superior-General
A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of a religious institute in the Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations. The superior general usually holds supreme executive authority in the religious community, while th ...
.[ Added to the traditional three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, was a fourth vow: to devote their lives to the service of the poor.][
At the time that Aikenhead established her congregation, there were only a hundred women in religious orders in Ireland, all enclosed contemplatives.
The next sixteen years were filled with the arduous work of organizing the community and extending its sphere of labor to every phase of charity, chiefly hospital and rescue work.][ She and her sisters were the first women religious to visit prisoners in ]Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol ( ga, Príosún Chill Mhaighneann) is a former prison in Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland. It is now a museum run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Government of Ireland. Many Irish revolutionaries, including the lead ...
.
In 1831 overexertion and disease shattered Aikenhead's health, leaving her an invalid. Her activity was unceasing, however, and she directed her sisters in their heroic work during the plague of 1832, placed them in charge of new institutions, and sent them on missions to France and in 1835 to Australia.
On 23 January 1834 Archbishop Daniel Murray and Mother Aikenhead founded St. Vincent's Hospital.[Meagher, William. ''The Life of Rev. Daniel Murray'', Dublin, Gerald Bellew, 1856]
/ref>
She died in Dublin, aged 71, having left her institute in a flourishing condition, in charge of ten institutions, besides innumerable missions and branches of charitable work.[ She is interred in the cemetery attached to St. Mary Magdalen's, Donnybrook.]
Cause for canonisation
Mary Aikenhead was given the title, Servant of God, in 1921. On 18 March 2015, a decree was issued proclaiming her heroic virtues. This entitles her to be referred to as the Venerable Mary Aikenhead.
The Mary Aikenhead Heritage Centre details Mary's life and the Religious Sisters of Charity. It is in Dublin at Our Lady's Hospice
Our Lady's Hospice & Care Services is a hospice and health care provider with two locations: one at Harold's Cross, Dublin and a satellite facility at Blackrock, County Dublin in Ireland. It provides specialist care for people with a range of n ...
, Harolds Cross in the building called Our Lady's Mount. This is where Mary Aikenhead spent the remainder of her life. The building was later used to establish Our Lady's Hospice in 1879.
Legacy
St. Margaret's Hospice was founded in 1950. It is now called St. Margaret of Scotland Hospice.
See also
* List of people on stamps of Ireland
This is a list of people on stamps of Ireland, including the years when they appeared on a stamp.
Because no Irish stamps were designed prior to 1929, the first Irish stamps issued by the Provisional Government of Ireland were the then-current ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aikenhead, Mary
1787 births
1858 deaths
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
Irish humanitarians
19th-century Irish nuns
People from Cork (city)
Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis