Founding Sisters
Founding Sisters 1911,
St Aloysius College Archives
Mother Evangelista Fitzpatrick
1822 – 1885
Family
Christina Fitzpatrick was born on Christmas Eve 1822 to a well-off Dublin family. Her mother was active in Catholic social life, while her father was a scholar, supporter of Catholic Emancipation and known for his charitable work, especially with orphaned children. The family was deeply religious: two sons became missionary priests (serving in India and the western United States), and Christina’s younger sister joined the Sisters of Mercy.
Sister of Mercy
Christina entered the Baggot Street Convent shortly before her twenty-third birthday in September 1845. She received the habit in March 1846 and made her vows in March 1848, taking the religious name Evangelista.
In the years that followed, her leadership qualities became increasingly evident and she was appointed to several roles, including Mother Bursar of the Dublin convent.
During the cholera outbreak that struck Dublin in 1849, she was the driving spirit of the Sisters who cared for victims in the temporary camp and shed hospitals. Her unselfishness and self-sacrifice inspired her fellow workers, and fear of contracting the disease did not lessen the Mercy Sisters’ devoted care.
Argentina 1856 – 1880
Fr Anthony Fahy invited the Sisters of Mercy to establish a convent in Argentina, and Evangelista Fitzpatrick was chosen to lead the group of seven nuns on the mission. They arrived in Buenos Aires on 24 February 1856 under the leadership of Mother Evangelista, accompanied by Baptist MacDonnell, Catherine Flanagan, Joseph Griffin, Rose Foley, a lay novice, and two postulants.
In Argentina, Mother Evangelista and the Sisters established an Irish Hospital in 1858, an orphanage and a school for poor children of all nationalities. They later founded another convent in Mercedes, 100 km from Buenos Aires in 1872, and in 1878, a fee-paying day and boarding school for children of Irish parentage.
Problems in Argentina
They faced conflict with Spanish-speaking clergy, Irish chaplains and wealthy Irish settlers, often relying only on Indigenous people and the poor for support. The Sisters of Mercy cared devotedly for the sick but suffered great losses: one died in the 1868 cholera epidemic, and by 1878, seventeen had died from various causes.
Given the many difficulties and obstacles the Sisters faced in Buenos Aires, Mother Evangelista’s perseverance is highly admirable. Far from being weak or hesitant, she dealt firmly with the bureaucracy of her time while continuing to care for those in need and to move forward.
In 1879, under violent threats causing fears for the nuns’ safety, Mother Evangelista returned to Dublin to consult about their future. While there, she met Bishop Reynolds of Adelaide, who invited them to establish a foundation in Australia. As the situation in Buenos Aires did not improve, Mother Fitzpatrick accepted Bishop Reynold’s offer and the group of twenty-four Sisters prepared to leave for Adelaide.
Given the many difficulties and obstacles, Mother Evangelista’s perseverance is highly admirable.
Arrival in Adelaide
On 17 March 1880, twenty-four Sisters of Mercy sailed from London to Adelaide, arriving on 3 May at a time when the city urgently needed schools and support for young single women. Welcomed by local religious communities, they rented a house on Gouger Street and began teaching at Russell Street School just six days later.
Mt Gambier Sisters of Mercy established
As the Adelaide house was too small for all twenty-four Sisters, it was decided that Monsignor Byrne would accompany twelve of the Sisters to Mount Gambier to establish a foundation there. A Select School was opened in July 1880 and a boarding school the following year. Some Sisters of Mercy later returned to Argentina in 1890.
On June 5 1880, the remaining Sisters purchased a house in Angas Street, Adelaide and established a Mother House under the leadership of Mother Evangelista.
Death and Legacy
Mother Evangelista is remembered as a strong and loving woman, with a rich personality. She had inherited her parents’ empathy for those in need, which led to her work for the poor. To her early companions, she was something of a second Mother Catherine McAuley.
She had been well-educated for women of her time and place, by the Loreto Sisters at Rathfarnham Abbey, Dublin, a prestigious school for girls established about 1822 and her longing for good reading material was lifelong.
Mother Evangelista spent only five years of work and progress in Australia. On June 29 1885 she died aged sixty-three and is buried in the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.
Compiled by Sr Mary-Anne Duigan
Edited by Jacqui Jury, Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning) 2024
References
McLay, A. (Ed.). (1996). Women on the move: Mercy’s Triple Spiral. Sisters of Mercy, Adelaide.
The Sisters of Mercy in the South East: 1880-1980. (1980). Sisters of Mercy, Mt Gambier.
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