Sister Irene was an American philanthropist, who founded the New York Foundling Hospital in 1869.
Background
Catherine Rosamund Fitzgibbon was born on May 12, 1823 in the Kensington district of London, England, United Kingdom. At an early age she came to the United States with her parents, who settled in Brooklyn, New York. During a visitation of Asiatic cholera in that city she was stricken with the disease and after the last rites of the Church had been administered she was given up for dead. While hearing and understanding what was going on about her and yet unable to speak, she made a vow that if her life were spared she would enter religious work.
Education
At the age of nine her parents emigrated to Brooklyn, where Catherine attended St. James School.
Career
After recovery Catherine Rosamund Fitzgibbon joined, in 1850, the Roman Catholic community of Sisters of Charity, taking the name of (Mary) Irene. While still a novice she was sent to teach in St. Peter's School, Barclay Street, New York City, where she passed fifteen years, attaining in that time a place of unique influence. More and more she formed contacts with the city's poor and unfortunate.
Until after the Civil War a foundling hospital had never been considered essential in the scheme of New York charities. It was the custom of the police, after each morning roundup, to consign to the inmates of the almshouses on Black-well's Island the tiny waifs picked up during the night. Such care as the paupers could give the infants did not avail to save many lives; a large percentage of these babies died within the first few weeks. Meanwhile the number of abandoned children was increasing with the city's growing population. Finally, under the leadership of Archbishop (afterward Cardinal) McCloskey, it was proposed that an asylum should be opened under the management of the Sisters of Charity, and Sister Irene was named as the first directress. In October 1869, with two sisters as aides, she prepared for the reception of foundlings at a house on East 12th Street. Within a year the capacity of those quarters was exceeded and a residence on Washington Square was obtained. The city then granted a site on Lexington Avenue at 68th Street and the state legislature appropriated $100, 000 for a building on condition that a like amount should be raised by subscription. That sum, large for those days even in New York, was secured by means of a community effort in which many elements of the city's population took part and in which Sister Irene's personality contributed to the final success.
In Sister Irene's lifetime the buildings and equipment came to represent a value of $1, 000, 000. On the twenty-fifth anniversary, the number of children whose lives had been saved was estimated at nearly 26, 000. As a preparation for her task the directress had personally visited every like institution of any importance in this country and had studied the systems then employed abroad. Soon after beginning work in New York, however, she found that she would have to develop methods of her own. Whenever a mother herself brought a child to the asylum, Sister Irene tried to persuade her to remain at least three months, giving the child her own care; rooms were provided for such mothers. If children taken to the Hospital were not reclaimed by a parent, the institution encouraged their adoption by families that had been carefully investigated by agents sent for the purpose. For children still in the Hospital's care, women were employed to act as foster mothers in their own homes, and thus some of the evils of institutional life were avoided.
She died in 1896.
Personality
It was said of her early years, that her qualities of tact and sympathy made her a trusted counselor of many both within and without the circle of her pupils.
Quotes from others about the person
The New York Times hailed her as “that great benefactor of humanity. ”