New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1867-06-16

a
the poor of Dublin.
Her attention was also powerfully called
10 the case OF the poor girls who need pro-
tectlon against the danger to which poverty
aud oeanty expose them; aud she long cher.
| ished the project of establishing home for
snch-a KIND OF benevolent intelligence
office, in which they could be sheltered UNI
til respectable employment could be OBJ
tanned for them. Her adopted father asked
her one day what she intended to do after
his death.
Il think" said she, ~ shall take small
house, and support few poor women,
whom ! could instruct and teach to work"
"How much do you think he asked,
would support such an establishment
81 think ;" she replied, after a little re-
Election, the interest of a thousand pounds
would be quite sufficient"
Catherine said he, "your desires are
very moderate; but if ever you possess
wealth you will do good with it."
Not long after this conversation her
adopted parents died, and she found herself
the sole heiress of all their wealth. 1t con-
sisted of an annuity of six hundred pounds
year, thirty thousand pounds in money.
tho mansion in which she lived, several
policies of life insurance, and a considerable
quantity of jewels and plata fortune
equivalent to more than half million dol
lars Of our present currency. She was then
thirty-five years OF age.
The sudden acquisition Of wealth Is one
of the severest trials to which poor human
virtue can be subjected. Catherine McAuley
bore this trial nobiy She dressed more
plainly than before, and was more a.siduous
than ever in her labors for the relief and in
structiOn of the poor around her Insalls-
fed with these comparatively desutory
| efforts she now determined to carry out her
early dream of founding an institution IN
which poor children could be taught to read
and sew, and in which servants and other
| women OF good character might, when out
| of employment, find tempory home. Aided
| by the advice Ofan excellent priest she pur-
| chased the necessary ground for t5o00 ster-
| ling, and employed an architect to construct
| the cditiCe. She told the architect that she
wanted three or four large rooms for poor
| schools; four large sleeping rooms Tor poor
Young women: one large and lofty apart
| ment for a chapel, and few small rooms
| for any ladies vino might wish to aid her III
taking care of the poor. In due time the
| building was finished. She sold her hand
some abode, dismissed her carriage and ser
wants and went to reside i'll the institution
| she had founded.
The first inmate painfully illustrated the
| need of such an institution. Visiting the
sick one day in poor lane, she saw 4lttIe
ragged child CRYING bitterly. Its parents,
she learned upon inquiry, had Just died IN
a cellar, and the landlord had thrust the
child into the streets to make way for some
new Corners to whom he had nted 1t.
Miss McAuley took the child in her arms,
in all its rags and filth, and carried 1t home
as the first Of her orphans.
1t had never been her intention to found
a convent, still less new order Of religious
sisters. The institution seemed, however,
to take that form by Il kind Of necessity.
The ladies who came to assist her IN teach
ing the children and in caring for her poor
women, fell into the habit, first, OF taking a
plain meal in the institution as a matter OF
convenience. Some OF them neceashfl'y
slept there: and rs they were all devoted
Catholics. their life within the institution
gradually arranged itself after the manner
of converts. In short time, through the
agency of her archbishop, the pope gave the
institution his especial sanction. and esta0'
lished a new order OF nuns called the Sisters
of Mercy. The ladies assumed a nun-llke
dress. made the usual VOWS of chastity and
poverty, and gave themselves up for life to
the holy work of solacing the miserable and
instructing the ignorant.
| Various circumstances contributed to give
immediate celebrity and success to her in
stitution. The spectacle of lady OF rank,
wealth, and beauty renouncing the pleasures
of the world and dedicating her existence 10
, the poor and the miserable Is one Whlch
, ALWAYS captivates the Imagination. DAME
O'Connell too, who was then III the ZENITH
| of his renown, became acquainted with the
gums upon it in his public addresses. Whcl
the order was but five years old the hrs
| cholera broke out in Ireland. Never ha
there been a more terrible scourge. For
considerable time the deaths IN Dnbhl
averaged six hundred u day, aud the whol
city was in CONSERVATION. such was tn
terror of the people at the awful mortallt
K in the hospitals, that they conceived tn
impression that the doctors were murderin
the people, and large numbers refused L
allow their sick to be treated by them.
Then it was that the Sisters of Mercy eS
hibited the most sublime and heroic oeheEC
lenCe. They did not visit the hospitals
they lived in them Some of them RENAME
., in the hospitals for months at time, an
II they never discontinued their eXeruons 8
u long as there was patient to be benettte
a by them. 1t is a remarkable fact that nt
n one of the Sisters OF Mercy took the diseas
a. although when, some years after, irelan
u was desolated by the famine fever, many
~ them persisted.
70 Catherine McAuley lived tifty-four year
10 Toward the end OF her long sickness, IN
~ ioy, it is said, became rapture; and, whe
~ one of her friends asked her il she felt an
Z of that fear of death which she lad ono
. experienced, she said:
~ IF | had thought death could be so swee
= never should have feared it,
e Some of the religious practices and belle
ie of this remarkable woman were such I
40 ~ Protestants cannot approve. For eXampl
~ she was in the habit toward the close Of III
~ life of whipping herself as mortlncauc
II for her sins. On the day before she die
/ she gave her whip to one OF the sisters viii
a it was still wet with her blood and order'
AZ her to put it in the fire and see that it W
81 burned. On the same day she gave
" another sister a parcel carefully tleu
as which contained her shoes, which she NJ
~ also converted into means OF torture. II
lo' amiable and gifted biographer tells US ID
I1'o' when life was extinct her shoulders we
NC Nv, found to be SCARED and her feet laceratc
III These things are all foreign to our CONGO
In' tions of what is right and proper; nevertl
ne less she thought otherwise, and it IS /
~ fundamental principle of Professionalism
IN leave every one free to work out his sou
lol publication in the way he finds most su
~ able
gu secret known only to herself, ana she aiwi
ny discouraged penanCes when lowered
JIM tone of the bodily health and lncapacita'
=. the sisters for endurance. During the hol
III of recreation she was one Of the merriest
az the merry-she would sing Il lively sol
~ tell a funny story, and relate her early
ice neriences in the world to the delight OF
&c, who heard her, and she would write mel
" letters, in rhyme, to the sisters III other c.
- vents.
lily A PoEr IN TRoUBLE.-A strange incid'
ar occurred at the Colosseum in Rome on n
zen Wednesday. A procession OF penlten
in headed by Cardinal Pitra, bearing ere
went there to hear a serman by a Monslgl
'ir' Bastide prelate OF the court, attracting
We, the place an immense crowd, which, De
IN composed chiefly OF Zouaves and other
Tho eigners, Monsignor Bastide addressed
les. French. In the midst of the discourse
| rnl in a ado