Mother Mary Frances Aikenhead was born in Daunt's Square off Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland.
16 Facts About Mary Aikenhead
1.
2.
Mary Aikenhead's grandfather, named David Aikenhead, was a Scottish gentleman who relinquished his military profession, married a Limerick lady, Miss Anne Wight and settled in Cork.
3.
Mary Aikenhead was quite frail and probably considered to be asthmatic and it was recommended that she be fostered by a nanny called Mary Aikenhead Rourke who lived on higher ground on Eason's Hill, Shandon, Cork.
4.
Mary Aikenhead was enjoying dinner with the family when the house was surrounded by troops with the sheriff at their head.
5.
At about the age of nine Mary Aikenhead began to spend a good deal of time visiting her maternal grandmother, where she was exposed to Catholic beliefs and practice through her widowed aunt, Mrs Gorman.
6.
Six months later, at the age of fifteen, Mary Aikenhead was baptised a Roman Catholic on 6 June 1802.
7.
Mary Aikenhead was active in works of charity but she had failed to find a religious institute devoted to charitable work.
8.
Mary Aikenhead shared this idea with Archbishop Murray, Bishop Coadjutor of Dublin who was a friend of O'Brien.
9.
On 1 September 1815, the first members of the new institute took their vows, Sister Mary Aikenhead Augustine being appointed Superior-General.
10.
At the time that Mary Aikenhead established her congregation, there were only a hundred women in religious orders in Ireland, all enclosed contemplatives.
11.
In 1831 overexertion and disease shattered Mary Aikenhead's health, leaving her an invalid.
12.
Mary Aikenhead's activity was unceasing and she directed her sisters in their heroic work during the plague of 1832, placed them in charge of new institutions, and sent them on missions to France and in 1835 to Australia.
13.
On 23 January 1834 Archbishop Daniel Murray and Mother Mary Aikenhead founded St Vincent's Hospital.
14.
Mary Aikenhead died in Dublin, aged 71, having left her institute in a flourishing condition, in charge of ten institutions, besides innumerable missions and branches of charitable work.
15.
Mary Aikenhead is interred in the cemetery attached to St Mary Magdalen's, Donnybrook.
16.
Mary Aikenhead's cause was formally opened on 20 March 1921, granting her the title of Servant of God.