One of the first works undertaken by the year-old Congregation founded in 1831 was the nursing of those who were stricken with the cholera in Dublin in the epidemic of 1832. This very early experience was the first step in a long story of caring for people so that they could be returned to good health, or of accompanying those who were terminally ill to live their last days with dignity and love. This care took many forms in the years gone by and continues to change with the developments in science, psychology, understanding of the whole person and their deep spiritual, psychological and emotional needs.

In the 180 years that have passed the Sisters founded hospitals such as the Mater in Dublin which has celebrated 150 years of caring for the nation in 2011. There was also St. Michael’s Hospital Dun Laoghaire, the National Rehabilitation Hospital also in Dun Laoghaire which was first a hospital for those suffering from tuberculosis and fifty years ago (1961) became the NRH.

Outside Dublin the Sisters worked in the Workhouses through the famine and onwards until many of these institutions became county hospitals or homes. The Sisters worked and continue to work in administrative and nursing posts.

As needs changed over the decades the Sisters diversified accordingly to work as District Nurses, School Nurses; they nursed people in their homes and with passing time entered into the new fields of alternative and complementary therapies and medicine.

Hospitals and Clinics were founded in our mission areas abroad. The Mater Hospital in Nairobi celebrates fifty years of existence in 2012.

The story is long and interesting in its detail which is available in the attached document.

Click here to read the whole story.