Convent, Baggot Street
July 27, 1837
Sister M. Elizabeth Moore
Kingstown
My Dear Sister Mary Elizabeth
My poor dying child1 requested I would be sent for – and as she was quite anxious that I should remain to the end of the month with Sister M. Clare, etc., I concluded she was drawing near to the end, and hastened back immediately.2 She is so much changed that if I had not seen similar cases greatly protracted, I would say she was going very rapidly out of this miserable world.
I am weary of all my travelling, and this morning I fell down the second flight of stairs. My side is quite sore, but if ever so well able, I could not leave my poor child.
Sister Sausse (for whom we are all particularly interested) is recommended sea air.3 I would be delighted to be any way instrumental in enabling her to go on in the state she prefers – which cannot be except some favourable change takes place in the state of her health. Will you, my dear, get the room our darling Catherine was in prepared for her and Sister Teresa Mary4, and give her all the care you can for a little time – she is so gentle, it will be no difficult matter to please her – a little broiled meat, or whatever she tells you she can take, not to get up till Breakfast time except you have Mass, and that she feels able – not to go out except she likes to try a short walk. Great tenderness of all things.
You and Sister Chantal5 might come in the steam [train] tomorrow to see me and the two Sisters can return with you. Sister Mary Angela6 will have the room ready. Come in early. Give my most affectionate love to all.
Your ever attached
M. C. McAuley
1 Catherine Macauley
2 Catherine McAuley had been at the new foundation on Rutland Street in Cork since July 6th, assisting the new Superior, Mary Clare Moore, who was then twenty-three years old. It was Catherine’s practice, beginning in Tullamore, to stay at each new foundation for at least one month, during which she helped to select Postulants who presented themselves as prospective Sisters of Mercy. During this time she always led the new community in praying the “‘Thirty Days’ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Honour of the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ” to implore God’s blessing on the new foundation and its works of mercy (see Sullivan, Catherine McAuley 66-67, 211). The text of this prayer is contained in Praying in the Spirit of Catherine McAuley (70-73).
3 Maria Sausse had entered the Baggot Street community sometime before this date. Sadly, her poor health eventually forced her to leave the community, probably in early 1838.
4 Mary Teresa (Catherine) White, who entered on May 9th, 1834, was the second Sister in the Baggot Street community with the name “Mary Teresa White,” and she can be easily confused with – though their personalities were very different – Mary Teresa (Amelia) White who had entered the community on May 2nd, 1833. Catherine had allowed them to choose the same name and patron saint (Teresa of Avila) at their reception of the habit, but she sometimes tried to distinguish them by calling Catherine White “Teresa Mary” or “Teresa the Less”. Catherine White departed from the Sisters of Mercy in 1848.
5 Mary de Chantal McCann
6 Mary Angela (Mary) Maher, then a Novice, had entered the Baggot Street Community on July 10th, 1836 and received the habit on January 25th, 1837. She was now in Kingstown, but in 1846 she became part of the community founded in New York City on April 13th. She died there on May 28th, 1873.
