The Contribution of the Sisters of Mercy to the Development of Social Welfare

Abstract

The history of the professionalization of social work often begins with the men of Toynbee Hall who inspired the settlement movement in the United Kingdom and the United States. But is it possible that an earlier group inspired them? The research presented here raises the question of whether the work of the noncloistered Sisters of Mercy may have been a prototype of the settlement movement in England. With their secular beginning in Ireland in 1824, the sisters opened Houses of Mercy in Ireland (1827) and England (1839) and eventually throughout the world to provide relief to the poor through charity, job training, education, health care, and counseling. This article presents original documents to illustrate their work and to open the question of the sisters’ role in the history of social welfare.