Abstract
Catherine McAuley’s life (1778–1841) spanned a critical age in the history of the Irish church, from the dawn of Catholic Emancipation to the eve of the Great Famine. Those years witnessed the first measure of Catholic ‘Relief’ (1778), the emergence of the church from the ‘catacombs’ of penal persecution, the creation of an infrastructure of charity and devotion, and the transformation of a mission into ‘a church.’ The phases of McAuley’s life illustrate the measure of that transition, and while the achievements of the age are typically attributed to episcopal leadership, her biography illustrates the extent to which the revival was a consequence of collaboration amongst a circle of dynamics leaders. Within that context, Catherine McAuley was particularly effective as a social activist, educator, and the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, which had established a global presence within a decade of her death.
Mary C. Sullivan RSM has an unequalled knowledge of her subject. She is the author of The Path of Mercy: The Life of Catherine McAuley (2012) and editor of her Correspondence (2004), but The Oral Instructions offer insights into her spirituality and the workings of her heart. There is a danger that studies of a founder, written by members of the congregation, tend towards hagiography. Yet, while Sullivan’s devotion to her subject is immediately apparent, this collection offers a critical perspective. Moreover, just as the best biographies are based on evidence of their subject’s self-perception, and the testament of those around them, this collection provides a unique insight into McAuley’s inspiration and ambition for her fledgling congregation.
These ‘Oral Instructions’ contain the record of the lectures delivered by McAuley at the annual round of retreats which punctuated life at the Baggot Street convent. Faithfully transcribed by the early sisters, ‘good scribes and archivists,’ the meditations capture the raison d’etre of the Mercy community. Moreover, since many were delivered in the emotionally charged atmosphere of pre-profession retreats, they communicate an articulation of their religious consecration and vows, which McAuley embraced as the path to ‘sovereign perfection,’ a state to be attained by conformity to the ‘resemblance of Jesus Christ.’ It was, of course, not sufficient ‘that Christ would be formed’ in the sisters, but the foundress insisted that He would ‘be recognised in [their] conduct.’ This charity was the hallmark of the ‘path of mercy,’ but while recent commentators emphasize the social justice agenda of the religious founders, the Oral Instructions are a reminder of their preoccupation with the business of salvation. The Instructions demonstrate the profoundly sacramental life of the early sisters and of their intense devotion to Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, the ‘effects’ of which were ‘union and charity.’ The sisters, of course, were not necessarily saints, nor was their routine angelic, and several asides in the text illustrate the gritty reality of McAuley’s work amongst Dublin’s poorest, the challenges of community life, and of inspiring ‘tepid novices.’
Sullivan adopts an unobtrusive editorial style to her text, which based on a 193-page manuscript collection of McAuley’s Instructions, compiled in the 1850s. To this, she adds and compares alternative, and sometimes earlier, accounts of the foundress’s addresses, ‘archetypes’ recorded by the sisters and preserved the various daughter houses. The Instructions were delivered from prepared texts, with extempore asides; presented in what her circle described as ‘a delightful style.’ McAuley explicitly referenced scriptural and spiritual sources, but many of her influences were simply alluded to, so a great value of the introduction and apparatus is the extent to which Sullivan has reconstructed her reading. The dominant inspirations are the classics of ‘Counter Reformationary’ spirituality, Rodriguez, Baudrand, and the like. It is instructive to note influences closer to home, including Challoner and Butler, but specifically her dependence on the insights of a Dublin circle, William Gahan OSA, the Carmelites Redmond O’Hanlon and Francis L’Estrange, and the great ‘Apostle of the Catholic revival,’ Thomas Betagh SJ to whom McAuley went regularly for instruction.
The Instructions illustrate the extent to which the ‘Catholic Revival’ of early 19th-century Ireland, the prelude to Cardinal Cullen’s so-called ‘Devotional Revolution,’ was indeed the work of a circle collaborating with archbishops Troy and Murray. They demonstrate emphatically, too, the emphasis on faith and charity which characterized that revival. Specifically, they shine a lamp into the spirituality of that circle and the motivation which lead McAuley and her ‘walking sisters’ to embrace the ‘path of mercy.’ Beautifully presented, and faithfully edited by Mary C. Sullivan, the Oral Instructions are a welcome addition to the available sources for the history of religious life, and of the Irish church.