Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo

The Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo are a number of female Catholic religious congregations sharing one rule and tradition.

They were originally a pious association of ladies formed in 1626 for the care of the sick in the hospital of St. Charles at Nancy, but became a religious congregation in 1652, after being generously endowed by the father of Emmanuel Chauvenel, a young advocate who had given his life in the service of the sick. The members placed themselves under the patronage of St. Charles Borromeo, called the "Apostle of Charity", and adopted the constitutions drawn up by Dom Epiphane Louys, Abbot of Estivals and Vicar General of the reformed Premonstratensians.

By the middle of the 18th century the congregation was in charge of numerous hospitals, and shortly afterwards took up as an additional task the Christian education of children. During the French Revolutionary period the members, although dispersed and deprived of their religious habit, continued their work so heroically as to win the encomiums of their persecutors. On 22 July 1804, they resumed their wearing of the habit, having obtained the approval of Napoleon, and were soon in a flourishing condition.

Their rule, based on the rule of St. Augustine, received papal approbation in 1859, and additional constitutions were confirmed by Leo XIII in 1892. Their work includes the direction of all manner of charitable institutions, such as domestic and trade schools, homes for first communicants, protectories, poor-houses, homes for defectives and female reformatories, as well as the care of the sick in their homes. They also have charge of schools, including a number of normal institutes in Austria. Candidates must spend one year as postulants and from three to four and a half years as novices before being admitted to the congregation. The auxiliary sisters for the care of the sick renew their vows annually.

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