Two Great Religious Orders

To two holy women—one a native of America, the other a native of Ireland—is America indebted for a gift beyond measure priceless, and of which no human estimate indeed can be formed—the foundation and introduction of two Religious Orders, which, commencing under circumstances of the greatest difficulty and discouragement, have since spread over the face of the continent, having their branches in every State of the Union, and being in all places where they are established the noblest exemplars of the Catholic religion, because the truest representatives of the Christian virtues. What Mrs. Seton did for the Order of Charity in America, Mrs. M'Auley accomplished for the Order of Mercy in Ireland; and not only was the Order of Mercy introduced from Ireland into the fruitful soil of America, but Ireland—that exhaustless fountain of the faith, whose well-spring is ever full of living waters—contributed to both Orders very many of their most zealous and devoted members.(23)