The Irish standard., 1911-04-29
The Famous Congregation Begun by
Mother Mary Akenhead in
Cork in 1916.
A Noble Society of Sanity Women
Which Has Done Marvellous
Work Among the Poor.
A Sketch of the Difficulties Which
Faith Had to Conquer in EARLY
Irish History.

The following article from the pen
Of Mr.. p. A. O'Farrell is a worthy
appreciation of the work of the wonder
full woman whose zeal and enterprise
has helped to make life better for
many of the poor and needy who are
sadly neglected by our philanthropic
milliOnaires who prefer to contribute
to causes out of which they get greater
returns in advertising. Mr.. QFarreN's
article follows:
few years hence the Irish Catholic
world will celebrate the Centennial of
the Irish Sisters Of Charity. The
founding of this Irish Congregation by
Mother Mary Akenhead, in 1916. marks
the dawn Of a new epoch for Ireland
and for the Irish race. The old
order of things were then about to
pass away and a new Ireland was in
the making, and for nearly hundred
years, this superb congregation has
been achieving marvellous results in
shaping and fashioning the character
of the New Ireland.
TO understand the task and the
achievements of Mary Akenhead and
Of the Irish religious order founded
by her, one must know and understand
the ireland Of one hundred years ago.
But to know and to understand the Ire
land Of one hundred years ago, it is
necessary to know and understand the
Ireland that was before St. Patrick,
and then to know and understand the
Ireland bcgotten through the assimila.
ton by the whole Irish race of the
sublime truths of Christianity.
The Ireland Of pagan times had a
Jurisprudence, a policy, and a code OF
manners quite peculiar to itself. In
it's love and tenderness for the child,
in it's respect and chivalry for woman,
and in the honors paid to Art and
Music, Pagan ireland stood alone and
supreme ere the Christian dispensa-
ton filed the world. Perhaps that
Was whip its people completely won the
heart of ST. Patrick, even during his
seven years Of slavery among them.
Perhaps that too was the reason why
the Irish race assimlated the sacred
truths of the Gospel with an avidity,
a zeal, and whole-heartedness that
has no parallel in history. The trans
formation OF Ireland under the apost.
leship of ST. Patrick is the most
wonderful thing In the religious his
tory OF the world. In two or three
generations, Ireland became the nurs-
cry of apostles, the Motherland of
saints and scholVs. From end to end
Of Ireland, shrilks and temples, and
schools and monastic institutions
grew and fourished and multiplied till
Ireland had become the University of
Europe, the one bright Illuminating
star of the Christian world.
The Gospel story seems to have sunk
deep into the heart of the Irish peo.
pie and even into the very soil of
Ireland itself. Looking back over
the ages, how clearly we now see that
the Greeks, as a nation never did as
simulate the sublime truths of Christ
ianity. Only one of the assembled
wise men of Athens that heard the
eloquence Of st. Paul became Christ
IAN The Greek mind even in early
Christian times desired to fashion the
Gospel to the Greek, rather than the
Greek to the Gospel. And even in
the Latin mind, there ever has been a
strange weakness, a luke-warmness, a
sort of selfishness in it's adherence
and profession of the religion OF
Christ. lreland's adhesion to Christi
anity was Of no half-hearted kind.
The religion of the Crucified be-
came the all absorbing object
of its existence. The Cross became
the glory of the race and the .propa.
cation of the faith, or the spread of
the Gospel, the paramount aim of all
that was noble and learned, in Ireland.
Irish teachers, missionaries and Saints
swarmed through Europe in the Sixth,
Seventh, and Eighth centuries. The
tullness of Ireland's achieyementsssin
\ IN ssIS