The Sisters of Mercy, a religious congregation founded by Catherine McAuley in Ireland in 1831, brought caring, compassionate service to burgeoning, industrial Pittsburgh in 1843. Frances Warde led six other Sisters to America where they founded in Pittsburgh the first congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States. They began at once, visiting and caring for the sick poor in their homes and opening a school in the basement of their convent on Penn Street, for this was the need of the times. Known as the walking sisters, Sisters of Mercy were visible signs of goodness and service in the Pittsburgh community. In response to growing and different needs, and with the encouragement of the Diocese, these pioneering Sisters of Mercy opened the first hospital in Pittsburgh and the first Mercy Hospital in the world on January 1, 1847. Everyone was welcomed regardless of race, nationality, age, gender or religion.
Again on the forefront of change, in the fall of 1997 the Sisters of Mercy were one of 12 religious sponsors who brought together their health ministries to create a new co-sponsored health system -- Catholic Health East which was founded January 8, 1998 with the expressed purpose of strengthening the role and identity of the Catholic health ministry in the eastern United States. Although Pittsburgh Mercy Health System no longer includes an acute care facility, we focus on providing community-based services, visible signs of our faith-centered mission and core values. In some ways, the 1840s ministry of the walking sisters has come full circle.