Mary Agnes O'Connor
Mother Mary Agnes O'Connor | |
---|---|
Personal | |
Born | 6 January 1815 Kilkenny, Ireland |
Died | 20 December 1859 Convent of Mercy, New York city, United States | (aged 44)
Religion | Christian |
Nationality | Irish |
Organization | |
Order | Sisters of Mercy |
Mother Mary Agnes O'Connor (6 January 1815 – 20 December 1859) was an Irish Sisters of Mercy nun, foundress, and social worker.[1]
Life
Mary O'Connor was born in Kilkenny on 6 January 1815. She was the youngest of the ten children of Patrick and Mary O'Connor. On 27 April 1838, she entered the Convent of Mercy, Baggot Street, Dublin, receiving the habit of the Sisters of Mercy on 4 September 1838. She took the name Sister Mary Agnes and professed on 24 September 1840. She initially worked in the House of Mercy, a refuge for homeless women, as well as visiting the sick in their homes and in Sir Patrick Dun's and Mercer's hospitals.[1][2]
O'Connor was sent to London on 31 July 1844, on a temporary basis to be the first superioress of St Edward's Convent, 32 Queen's Square,
A House of Mercy was established in 1848 to receive, educate and train immigrant Irish and local young women. In the early years, the majority of attendees where Irish women and girls. O'Connor would go to the docks to meet women as they arrived, and bring them to the House of Mercy which could house 100 women. The House had schoolrooms, dormitories and workrooms where the young women could learn reading, writing, and numeracy as well as dressmaking, embroidery, fine needlework, kitchen work, knitting, laundry work, and plain sewing. In its first 18 years, 9,054 young women attended at the House, with the nuns placing 16,869 persons into employment in the same period. The House also provided meals and other assistance to locals in poverty.[1]
Further convents were established in Brooklyn on 12 September 1855, and in St Louis in June 1856 alongside Parochial and Sunday schools in the cities. O'Connor developed a painful eye condition from 1852, and was sent to Ireland to be seen by Sir William Wilde to no avail.[2] She served as superior for 13 years until her death on 20 December 1859 in the Convent of Mercy, New York. She is buried in the crypt of the St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Lunney, Sheila (2009). "O'Connor, Mary". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b c Smith, Mary Agatha. "Reverend Mother Agnes O'Connor". www.mercyworld.org. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
- ISBN 9780813218731.