Pioneer Sisters Began Work of Mercy at Aid for Women Site
Julie Cooper, R.N., MSN -Board Member

Each day there is a continuous flow of people through the revolving doors of the Willoughby Tower building at 8 South Michigan Avenue where our center is located. In the fast pace of the city, few stop to notice a plaque outside the building, which commemorates the contribution the Sisters of Mercy made to Chicago over 150 years ago as they began their ministry to the needy in the new city that was considered mission territory. In 1846, the Rt. Rev. William Quarter, the first Catholic bishop of Chicago, invited five Sisters of Mercy to come to Chicago from Pittsburgh. Accompanied by both the Bishop's brother, Rev. Walter Quarter and Mother Mary Frances Xavier Warde, Sister Agatha O'Brien, novices Sister Mary Vincent McGirr and Sister Mary Gertrude McGuire and postulants Eliza Corbett and Eva Schmidt, set foot on the shore of Lake Michigan on September 23. At that time, Chicago was a muddy, swamp-like village where only 17,000 people lived. Bishop Quarter gave the sisters his residence to use as their convent which would provide some protection from the wind and snow. In one month they had established Chicago's first Catholic school, St. Mary for girls and later St. Joseph for boys at Madison Street near Wabash Avenue. They also founded St. Xavier Academy, a girl's boarding school, which would become the city's first women's college. The work of the sisters at the site increased as they took in young women as boarders and provided them with employment assistance. They reached out to the sick, poor and imprisoned. They cared for victims of the 1849 and 1854 cholera epidemics and established homes for the orphaned children. In 1850 several of the sisters were asked to take over the nursing care for patients at the twelve bed Illinois General Hospital of the Lake, a former hotel at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Rush Street. The next year the sisters changed the name to Mercy Hospital and Orphan Asylum which was Chicago's first Catholic hospital. In 1853 the hospital moved to a former saloon and boarding house, temporarily. New brick buildings were constructed at Van Buren Street and Wabash Avenue where the hospital was located until 1863 when it moved to its current location at 26th Street and Calumet Avenue. The hospital in its isolated location would become a refuge for the injured and homeless after the Chicago fire of 1871. Four of the first five sisters to arrive in 1846 died within ten years. The hardship of pioneer life took its toll on these brave young women who accomplished so much in their short lives. Their faith inspired them to reach out to the neediest in Chicago. They were guided and motivated by the words of Mother Catherine McAuley who founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland in 1831. The humble, abandoned, agonizing Christ, this is my Christ. Mercy - the principal path marked out by Jesus for those desirous of following him. There are three things the poor prize more highly than gold, though they cost the donor nothing. Among these are the kind word, the gentle compassionate look and the patient hearing of their sorrows. The proof of love is deed. In our work here at 8 South Michigan, let us draw from the strength of the women who made this ground holy with their lives of sacrifice. As we pass by the plaque on the building, let us pause to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the work of the sisters and a prayer of petition for their intercession as we continue our life affirming work with women and their families in the next century. Special thanks to Sister Joy Clough, RSM and the Sisters of Mercy.