I Lift My Lamp - The Story of Mother Mary Walsh, OP

Rebroadcast of the long-running radio program, "The Ave Maria Hour," a presentation of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. www.AtonementFriars.org

Mother Mary Walsh, OP was born in 1950 to Irish parents living in London. Orphaned in her infancy, she was raised in Ireland by her paternal grandmother. At 19, she immigrated to America and worked as a domestic servant in Manhattan.

In the summer of 1876, Mary was approached by a young girl desperate for help. The girl's mother was sick with fever and her father was in jail. Mary began begging on the street for food and money for the girl's family. She nursed the mother back to health and spent time caring for the family. In the process, Mary lost her own job but found her life's work.

Mary became a Dominican Tertiary -- a layperson who lives out a religious order's charism in their daily lives. She and other young women rented rooms near a local church and took in laundry to finance their work with the poor. For thirty years, Mary Walsh and her companions lived and worked as a religious community without formal Church approval. Believing that "Love can turn a flame into a lamp," Mary worked selflessly to spread the warmth of her flame to the needy.

In 1910, the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor were officially received into the Roman Catholic Church. Mother Mary Walsh, OP died on November 6, 1922.