Regional Community of North Carolina

HISTORY:     The Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of North Carolina originated from the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy (OLM), which was founded in Charleston, SC, in 1821 by Bishop John England to teach young children, instruct slaves, and to care for orphans, the sick and the infirm. In 1862, three sisters went to Wilmington, NC, for four months to nurse the victims of yellow fever, and later returned to Charleston.   In 1869, Cardinal James Gibbons (then Bishop Gibbons, shown at left) requested that the sisters found a convent in Wilmington, NC, “to instruct the young and perform those duties of Mercy for which they are so well adapted.”   Three sisters, Sister Mary Augustine Kent, Sister Mary Baptist Sheehan and Sister Mary Charles Curtin arrived in Wilmington, shortly thereafter and founded The Academy of the Incarnation, a school for that purpose. See photo at right.     Later, at the request of Abbot Leo Haid, OSB, of St. Mary's Benedictine  Abbey (now Belmont Abbey), five women, Sisters Mary Catherine Price, Superior, S. Mary Cecilia Cobb, S. Mary Agatha Ryan, S. Mary Xavier McKenna and S. Mary Clare Lockfaw arrived by train from Charlotte on September 1, 1892, and by Sept. 8, they had opened a boarding and day school (First class of Sacred Heart Academy 1892-93 is shown below at left with Sisters in bonnets L-R, Sisters M. Agatha Ryan, M. Clare Lockfaw, M. Catherine Price and M. Cecilia Cobb). Shortly thereafter, four more Sisters arrived, including Sisters Mary Gertrude Henneberry, Mary Joseph Gill, Mary Veronica Leonard and Margaret Mary Wheeler. In 1913 the sisters became affiliated with Catherine McAuley’s Sisters of Mercy.   Coincidentally, the OLMs also made foundations in Savannah, Georgia, and White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, both of which later affiliated with the Sisters of Mercy. (Note: The OLMs were asked to make a foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas, but decided it would deplete their numbers in the schools of South Carolina, so they declined.)1    For most of their history the Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of North Carolina have had the only motherhouse in a state with a Catholic population of less than one-percent. Recently that number increased to two percent with an influx of Catholics from other states.     In November 1946, three sisters — Sister Mary Inez Underwood, Sister Mary Louise Wiesenforth and Sister Mary Annette McBennett — opened a novitiate on the island of Guam, at the invitation of Bishop Appollinaris Baumgartner. Within a year they had received 10 young women and had 10 more waiting. Today, more than 50 women from the Guam Region are members of the Regional Community of North Carolina. Photo at right shows first group of postulants on Guam.  1Reference: Bishop England's Sisterhood, 1829-1929, by Sister M. Anne Francis Campbell, OLM, B.S., M.A. (1968), p. 65.

Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of North Carolina Leadership Team

Paulette R. Williams, RSM President	Pauline M. Clifford, RSM  Vice President	M. Angela Perez, RSM Second Councilor	Donna M. Vaillancourt, RSM Third Councilor	Jill Katherine Weber, RSM Fourth Councilor

PROFILE:
At the present time, the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina have 105 Sisters with Mercy Associates numbering 118 with several involved in Pre-Associate studies. This congregation of Women Religious sponsors several corporations (see Sponsored Ministries), and serves in a variety of ministries in North Carolina, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, Ireland, the Mariana Islands of Guam and on Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia. They serve as teachers, nurses, social workers, physical therapists, chaplains, pastoral administrators, canon lawyers, administrators, musicians, artists, Vicars for religious, advocates for the poor and disenfranchised and hold various positions in Diocesan ministries. They are open and responsive to their vowed life of poverty, chastity, obedience and the service of the poor, the sick and the uneducated.