Robert Ellsberg’s Blessed Among Us: Day by Day with Saintly Witnesses; Volume 2 is now available from Liturgical Press.
“God’s will is the holiest thing on earth.”
Mother Mary Demetrias Cunningham
Founder, Mission Helper Sisters (1859–1940)
Mary Demetrias Cunningham, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was born in Washington, DC, the eldest of her parents’ thirteen children. When she was ten years old, her family moved to Baltimore. It was only a few years after the Civil War, and Mary was disturbed to witness the blatant discrimination against African Americans—even in her parish church, where Black children were not permitted to receive religious instruction. Eventually, she began to teach them on the church stairs until she was finally given the use of an unoccupied classroom.
In time, with other interested women, she leased a house, intending to form a community dedicated to the religious instruction of African American children. Despite her importunate entreaties, she could not win the support of her pastor. Finally she threw herself on the ground before him and begged, “For the love of God, let me go.” The priest agreed to put the matter to Cardinal Gibbons, who replied, “Let her go; something may come of it.” This was the origin in 1890 of the Mission Helper Sisters.
Aside from religious education, the sisters opened centers for vocational training. In time, their services extended beyond the original focus on African Americans to the needs of the poor in general, including daycare centers for immigrants and schools for the deaf. They spread throughout the United States as well as Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Mother Mary Demetrias died on April 9, 1940.
