Mother Mary Aikenhead, who had founded the Religious Sisters of Charity in 1815 in Dublin, Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was requested by John Bede Polding, O.S.B., the first Catholic bishop in Australia, to send some Sisters to help the many female convicts who had been transported to Australia as penalty for their crimes. Arriving in New South Wales, then still a colony of the British Empire, on the Francis Spaight on 31 December 1838 the Sisters who had volunteered to go to Australia from Ireland were the first Religious Sisters to set foot on the Australian continent. The Sisters of Charity of Australia have operated independently of the congregation in Ireland since 1842. St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, was founded by the Sisters in 1857. In 1925, the Sisters of Charity ventured to Queensland, Australia to open a school, Mt St Michael's College - originally known as Grantuly until 1941 - in Ashgrove. The spirituality of the Sisters of Charity derives from the life of St. Vincent de Paul and the vision of Mary Aikenhead, their foundress. In addition to the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the Sisters of Charity take a fourth vow, of service to the poor. For the Sisters of Charity, "Service of the Poor" denotes not only the alleviation of a present affliction by immediate action, but also includes having a "preferential option for the poor".
Services
The ministries of the Sisters of Charity of Australia have been varied in nature from the time of their founding. From ministering in prisons to managing hospitals and acting to conserve environments, they have been quick to "read the signs of the times" and move to where they have been most needed, in the greatest service to the poor. One of their most prominent ministries was the establishment of St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney in 1857. St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne was opened in 1893. The health care ministries of St Vincent's Health Australia are now under the stewardship of Mary Aikenhead Ministries. In 1957, the Sisters opened Mt Olivet Hospital as a hospice in Brisbane. It now provides a wider range of hospital services and has been renamed St Vincent's Private Hospital.
