August 22, 2023
Foundation Day: Sisters of Mercy Philadelphia/Merion
On August 22, 1861, a small group of hopeful women arrived at the railroad station in North Philadelphia. On that hot afternoon, the first Philadelphia Sisters of Mercy, led by a 27-year-old Irish immigrant Patricia Waldron, disembarked from the train and caught their first amazed glimpse of the busy city. They carried few worldly possessions. They came with only a dream for Mercy. It was a dream so alive in them that it still inspires us today, over 160 years later.
Can you see them standing on the cramped platform, the hissing steam trains encircling them in mist? They must have felt “be-misted” themselves, these mostly Irish country girls engulfed in a noisy teeming city.
Union troops heading south crowded the platform. Busy Broad Street crackled with news of the burgeoning national strife. Lincoln himself would visit the city in the coming weeks.
Visiting Old Moyamensing Prison
Where would they begin? And how? Hidden within the seams of this bustling city’s garment lay the poor – the ones for whom they had come. How to reach them? How to help them change their lives?
Ranging from sixteen to twenty-seven years old, these brave young women had been charged with establishing a kind of “new nation” themselves – not of politics, but of mercy. They, like the young stout-hearted soldiers around them, were also a little weak-kneed. They too had their battles to face. They too would see starvation, illness, attack, and death – but they would endure for the sake of the Mercy dream, God’s dream for all those in need.
In 2011, the Philadelphia/Merion Sisters of Mercy celebrated our Sesquicentennial. One of our celebratory events was a thrilling performance at the Kimmel Center commemorating these founding sisters and the decades of ministry built on their commitment.
The performance opened with these imagined comments from Patricia Waldron.
Mother Patricia Waldron
(played by our dear late Sister Mimi Connor, RSM)
Have you ever noticed how our dreams unfold?
They never happen in the way we first imagined.
Instead, they weave – your dreams and mine ---
Among each other in a latticework of grace.
By the way, my name is Anne Waldron.
known in my life as Mother Patricia –
“Reverend Mother” really.
A rather weighty title, don’t you think?
But my own dream of mercy was not weighty.
I was born in Tuam (pronounced “Choom”), County Galway, Ireland.
‘Tis a precious place, a mere 20 miles from the glorious bay to the south,
Where the soft air carries a hint of the sea
And the sweet land holds both a deep promise and a deep scar of famine.
I must seem a long way from you now, after these 150 years – almost like a shadow on your memories. And you must think me a particularly courageous part of your history. After all, you have named buildings after me, I see! But tonight, I want you to know me in a new way. I was only 27 when I came here to this strange city. I walked these same streets as you, fraught as they are with their dangers and beauties. Do you know that a century and a half ago we sisters lived just two miles north of this very spot - you call it “The Kimmel” I think! Ah, but the Philadelphia of the 1860s was a far different sight from what I saw outside tonight. I see that a million and a half souls live here now! Oh my! Just a third that number in the city then. We thought it an amazing number having come mostly from our small villages. I was young then – like all of you are or were once – Young and full of dreams. We all were – I and these my dear companions. We were not different because of our courage, our spirit of adventure, our dedication, or our generosity— although these marked our lives as we grew deeper into God. No – what made us who we were was this: We clearly knew and trusted that the dream in us was God’s dream for a wounded world. In our deepest hearts, we were Sisters of Mercy! As you listen to our stories tonight, Hold this question in your own hearts: What dream lived in you when you were young? What dream lives in you now?
Enduring dreams begin with small first steps. So, hailing a horse-drawn carriage, Mother Patricia Waldron led her young band to their new lives. Thus she began the grace-filled saga many of us know so well and of which we are a part today. Their dream lives in us who love Mercy:
- in our continued effort to find those who are poor and sick in a world that ignores their suffering
- in our choice to be compassionate in a world that often chooses violence
- in our commitment to care in a world of treacherous indifference
who led the way in faith and commitment.
On that sultry August day in 1861, and on this one in 2023, people have choices to make. They have vows to keep. Some choices live forever. In the name of Mercy, what will you choose today?
I think many of you might enjoy a photo review of the Kimmel Celebration. I have only a few photos of the original sisters which I connected with the performer where possible.
Mother Gertrude Dowling
(played by Sister Kathleen Mary Long)
Sister Marie Madeleine Mathey
(played by Sister Suzanne Neisser)
Sister Mary Philomena Hughes
(played by Sister Mary Hentz)
Sister Mary Angela Curtin
(played by Sister Connie Haughton)
Sister Mary Ann Coveney
(played by Sister Diane Guerin)
Sister Francis de Sales Geraghty
(played by Sister Mary Klock)
Sister Mary Rose Davies
(played by Sister Marie Carolyn Levand)
Sister Mary Veronica O’Reilley
(played by Sister Eileen Sizer)
Virtuoso Sister Marie Ann Ellmer plays the magnifcent
Kimmel organ
Maestro Sister Jeanette Goglia
leads a resounding rendition
of her composition “The Circle of Mercy”
sung by 2500 attendees
(Click the white arrowhead to enjoy “The Circle of Mercy” as you peruse these photos.
Happy Foundation Day to all who love and live Mercy!)
Lavish Mercy 