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Local History
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Catherine McAuley, a wealthy Irish heiress, began caring for poor women and children in Dublin, Ireland in 1827. In order that her service to the poor might thrive and endure, Catherine founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831.
When millions of Irish laborers emigrated to the United States, the Sisters of Mercy came with them. One was Mary Baptist Russell who, at the age of 25 led seven young women to San Francisco. They arrived to find a city populated with gold prospectors, fortune hunters, and many victims of such opportunists. In 1855 a cholera epidemic struck. The Sisters provided round-the-clock care and soon established St. Mary's Hospital. By 1892 Sisters were also staffing four schools in San Francisco and Oakland and some social service agencies.
- After the earthquake of 1906 destroyed St. Mary's Hospital, the Sisters of Mercy set up a tent hospital adjacent to Golden Gate Park.
- They bought the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame in 1924, which became the Motherhouse for the region which included California and Arizona.
- Mercy High School Burlingame was founded in Kohl Mansion in 1931. In 1952 Mercy High School San Francisco opened. By the mid-fifties, 25 elementary schools in California were staffed by the Sisters of Mercy.
- The Burlingame Region founded a Peru mission, established at Acora in the Altiplano on January 26, 1964.
- Mercy Center Burlingame was founded as a retreat and conference center in 1981.
- The sisters declared the Motherhouse grounds a nuclear free zone in 1984 and declared sanctuary for refugees in 1985. A number of families were housed on the campus.
- In 1986 Catholic Healthcare West was established in partnership with the Auburn Sisters of Mercy.
- In 1989 the Burlingame Sisters became a co-sponsor of Mercy Housing, Inc. to provide quality, affordable, service-enriched housing for the economically poor, to strengthen families, and to promote healthy communities.
- The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy was formed in 1991, uniting the 25 regions of Mercys in the United States and their related groups in Central and South America, Guam, and the Philippines.
- 1993-Mercy Charities Housing California was formed, assuming ownership and management of housing properties established within Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
- 1997-Mercy Volunteer Corps, an organization of volunteers who give a year of service to the Mercy mission, came west with locations in San Francisco and San Diego.
- 1997-Elder Care Alliance was formed when Mercy Retirement and Care Center affiliated with Salem Lutheran Home in Oakland to develop a network of faith-centered elder care programs in California.
- 2002-Joined with Pittsburgh and Merion communities to support formation of one independent region in Peru.
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