Founding Sisters

By 1856, many Irish families had fled poverty in Ireland for Argentina, where a vastly different climate and living conditions left many facing disease and inadequate medical care. In response to an appeal from Father Fahey of Buenos Aires, seven Sisters of Mercy arrived on 24 February 1856 to establish a convent. They founded a hospital to care for the sick and later opened schools for the children of Irish settlers. Twenty-four years later, political unrest in Buenos Aires prompted Mother Evangelista Fitzpatrick and Sister Mary Claver Kenny to visit Dublin where they met Bishop Christopher Reynolds of Adelaide. At his invitation, twenty-four Sisters from Argentina travelled to South Australia, arriving on 3 May 1880 to establish the Convent of Mercy in Angas Street, Adelaide.