AIKENHEAD, Mary, Servant of God. - Foundress of the Irish Sisters of Charity, b. at Cork (Ireland) on 15 January 1787 to a Catholic mother and an Anglican father who converted at the point of death, d. at Dublin on 22 July 1858. A. was converted immediately after her father's death (1802), and, after her mother's death, entered a convent in York under the name Mary Augustine. After three years she took her vows and settled in Dublin, where, aided by Alice Walsh, she opened the first house of the "Sisters of Charity" (1815), which she governed as superior general; she later founded new convents at Micklegate, at Bar, and at York; at her death she left six of them, besides a refuge for penitents and St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, the first in Ireland directed by sisters.

During the plague of 1832 and on other occasions she exerted herself, together with her sisters, in the care of the sick, one of the principal tasks to which her congregation is dedicated. The process of beatification of this benefactress of Ireland was introduced on 20 March 1921.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: AAS, 13 (1921), pp. 234-38; Anon., La Réc. Mire Mary A., Tours 1927.

Augusto Guidi

@incollection{ec1_aikenhead_mary_serva_di_dio, author = {Guidi, Augusto}, title = {Aikenhead, mary, serva di dio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {597--598}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aikenhead-mary-serva-di-dio} }

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Aikenhead, Mary, Servant of God

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