(1787-1858) Discover the timeline of our foundress Mary Aikenhead
1787: 19 January: Born in Grand Parade, Cork
1787: 4 April, baptised into the Anglican Communion
Father: Dr David Aikenhead, Scots Protestant, doctor and apothecary; mother: Mary Stacpole, Catholic
Children: Mary, Anne, Margaret, St John
1793: Catholic fosterage, Rorkes, Eason’s Hill
1793: Returned to parents’ house, Grand Parade
1798: Father retired; family moved to Rutland Street, Cork
1801: 15 December: father died: Catholic on deathbed
1802: 6 June: Catholic; 29 June; First Communion; 2 July: Confirmation: Frances
1807: 30 November: met Anna Maria O’Brien of Mountjoy Square, Dublin
1809: Met Daniel Murray, coadjutor archbishop of Dublin with right of succession
24 August: Death of mother; Mary head of family
1810: Again met Dr Murray, at home of Mrs. O’Brien; plan for new religious order to visit the poor. Mary interested in becoming member.
1811: Mary chosen as superior of proposed order; insisted on making proper novitiate
1812: Trinity Sunday, 24 May: left Cork for Bar Convent, York {IBVM} 6 June: Commenced novitiate with Catherine Walsh
1815: 10 February: death of Bishop Francis Moylan of Cork; 22 August: finished novitiate in York; 1 September: temporary vows, North William Street, Dublin – first convent
1816: 1 September: renewal of temporary vows; 10 September: death of her brother, St John; 10 September [same day], visitation of the sick began: first “walking nuns” in Ireland; 1 December: Archbishop Troy formally constituted Religious Sisters of Charity, by rescript of Pius VII, 10 November 1816; 9 December: perpetual vows
1819: 2 February: Stanhope St. Convent; novitiate moved to this new convent; Mother Aikenhead, novice mistress
1823: Death of Archbishop Troy; succession of Archbishop Murray; 19 March: her sister, Anne, joined Congregation
1826: 13 November: Cork foundation, “Cork Castle”, Bishop John Murphy and “foreign government”
1828: 8 August: her sister Anne (Sr. Anne Ignatius) died in Stanhope Street
1830: 1 February: North William Street Convent transferred to Upper Gardiner St. Large school: Sr. Xavier Hennessy; help from Christian Brothers
1831: 16 August: Sandymount Convent, Mary Aikenhead moved here; sick, invalided: ruled Congregation by pen henceforth
1832: Cholera – Sisters tended sick at home and in
1834: temporary hospitals in Dublin and Cork
1833: Letter on State of Poor in Ireland written by Mary; 30 August: Constitutions confirmed by Gregory XVI; Management of Penitent Asylum, Townsend St
1834: 23 January: St Vincent’s Hospital, Stephen’s Green; first hospital staffed by nuns in English-speaking world
1835: 5 July: Mary Aikenhead appointed Superior General by Pope Gregory XVI, there not yet being sufficient senior sisters to hold election
1837: Penitent Asylum, Townsend St. to Donnybrook; 8 August: Eliza Bodenham (Sister Ignatius), novice mistress, dismissed: thirteen novices and two professed sisters left with her
1838: 12 August: five sisters to Australia – 31 December, Sydney: Paramatta; Benedictine pressure and distance from Ireland leads to separate congregation
1840: Novitiate transferred from Stanhope Street to St Vincent’s; Sister Lucy Clifford new novice mistress; Preston convent, England, at request of Jesuits
1841: Request from Bishop Foran of Waterford for convent
1842: 16 June: Waterford convent
1843: January: Superior General for life
1844: Clarinbridge convent, Co. Galway
1845: 14 September: Our Lady’s Mount, Harold’s Cross; Mary moved here; 2 October: Lucy Clifford and novices, from St Vincent’s, Stephen’s Green; 2 October: Clonmel convent, Co. Tipperary; 9 November: Cork community move into new convent: St Vincent’s
1846: 8 June: Cork sisters take on management of St Mary Magdalen’s Asylum
1847: Great Irish Famine at its peak: food distribution undertaken by convents, particularly by Clarinbridge in the west
1848: Sisters withdrawn from Preston
1852: 26 February: Death of Archbishop Daniel Murray, Mary’s great friend and motivator
1854: 23 July: Death of Matilda Denis, early benefactor of the Congregation. 25 December: Death of Mother Catherine Walsh, Mary’s companion in the novitiate
1857: June: Death of Fr Robert St. Leger SJ, Mary’s spiritual guide
1858: 4 April: Deeds of Benada Abbey, Co. Sligo sisters went in August, a month after Mary’s death; 22 July: Mary died at Harold’s Cross; buried in Donnybrook
Source: Donal S. Blake cfc 2001
