Ethos

Coláiste Muire founded by the Mercy Sisters is inspired by the Mercy vision of education. The Mercy vision of education takes its inspiration from Catherine McAuley, its foundress.

Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin in 1778. In 1824, she used her inheritance from an Irish couple she had served for twenty years to build a large House of Mercy where she and other lay women would shelter homeless women, reach out to the sick and dying, and educate poor girls.

For Catherine, the heart of a Mercy education is the sound development of the student’s religious understanding and openness to God’s consolation. The opportunity to grow in personal knowledge of the Christian faith, the help of God manifest in the sacraments, and the irrevocable promises revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, was, for her, the most important gift of a Mercy school to its students. While she insisted on thorough instruction in necessary academic and work skills, Catherine’s deepest educational conscience focused on the religious education of all students in her care: on strengthening the grounds of their faith, hope, and love, and nurturing their awareness of the true sources of joy and confidence. To her, occasions for such life sustaining learning are the central service a Mercy school ought to offer to students.

Today, we continue Mercy education inspired by Catherine Mc Auley and the Sisters of Mercy.