MercyCare staff took a glimpse into the past as part of Mercy Day celebrations which this year focused on our Wembley Campus.
MercyCare Heritage Coordinator Nigel Wright led heritage tours of the site, sharing stories about the work of the Sisters of Mercy and Benedictine Monks who previously occupied the land.
The Wembley campus is home to some beautiful heritage buildings which in the past were used for different purposes such as an orphanage, a school-house and stables.
Mercy Day marks the beginning of the community work done by Sisters of Mercy founder, Catherine McAuley. That work became the foundations for what became our not-for-profit organisation.
Two separate heritage tours were held with each of them followed by morning tea and a question and answer session.
A Mass was also held in Our Lady of Mercy Chapel at the site, as part the Mercy Day celebrations.
Mercy Day and the Sisters of Mercy:
An occasion celebrating the anniversary of the opening of the first ‘House of Mercy’ in Dublin, Ireland on September 24, 1827. The house took in homeless women and children and assisted them with care and education.
This first ‘House of Mercy’ was set up by Catherine McAuley, who inherited a grand sum of money from her employers when they passed away. She’d worked as a house manager for them, but after their death she devoted her life to the poor, sick and uneducated.
She later formed the Sisters of Mercy, which went on to experience rapid expansion. Part of that expansion included a group of the Sisters led by Sister Ursula Frayne arriving in Perth, Western Australia in 1846.
