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The Nashville Community

Mother Mary Clare McMahon was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and was educated at St. Frances Academy in Providence. Graduating at the age of 17, she entered the novitiate a few months later and began her training in the classroom. After finishing her training in the novitiate she taught in schools in Providence for a few years.

Then came the call from the war-devastated South that brought her to her Superiors begging that she might be sent to help bring the North and South together.Her request was granted and on November 1, 1866, Mother Mary Clare with five volunteers came to Nashville. The old Kiekman building, opposite St. Mary's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, was rented for a convent and here this brave little band, amid a strange people and stranger scenes, took up their chosen work of education. There were many inconveniences and hardships in the early years, but Mother Clare's undaunted spirit never wavered and she devoted herself cheerfully and with tireless energy to the many tasks at hand.

The summer of 1873, when the dreaded scourge of cholera ravaged Nashville, Mother Clare and her community offered themselves as nurses. For five weeks these good women called home where ever they happened to be on duty. Mother Mary Clare was known to the people of Nashville as the Founder of the Sisters of Mercy in Nashville. The foundation became a firm one under her leadership. She died a calm and peaceful death at the age of 82.

Today the Sisters are involved in eduaction and health care. They also reach out to the marginal in society at the House of Mercy and other social agencies.