Mother M. Ligouri Gibson is considered the founder of the Sisters of Mercy in Liverpool (England), where she served as Mother Superior from July 1849 (when she was just 30) until she died in 1881 at the age of 62. Mother Ligouri was newly professed when she came as one of a party of six from Baggot Street to establish the Liverpool Foundation. As a newly professed sister, she was not eligible to be the leader but was appointed as assistant to the first superior, Mother M. de Sales White, whom she succeeded when Mother de Sales resigned due to ill health in 1849. Ligouri was responsible for the spread of the Sisters of Mercy to many regions and for the establishment of two autonomous foundations in Newcastle as well as one as far afield as North Sydney, Australia (originally intended for Bathurst).

Fanny Gibson was born in Manchester on July 12, 1819, to a wealthy Catholic family in Lancashire. The family later moved to the outskirts of Liverpool. Fanny completed her secondary education at a Benedictine Sisters-run boarding school in Winchester.

Fanny entered the Sisters of Mercy at Baggot Street around six months prior to Catherine McAuley’s death in 1841. With deep admiration for the Sisters’ work, she embraced ministry wholeheartedly, first in Dublin and then in Liverpool. She established many schools and attended to the needs of children in care. She supported many forms of Mercy ministry, including visitation and care for the sick and poor in their homes. 

Mother Ligouri took on leadership at a young age. She suffered poor health throughout her life, a fact that makes her many achievements all the more remarkable.

Mother Ligouri responded generously to requests for Sisters of Mercy to serve in the north of England and beyond. She established branch houses in several regions, one of which, in Newcastle (UK), would become an autonomous foundation in 1856. In 1865, she sent Sister M. Ignatius (Elizabeth) McQuoin and other sisters to make a foundation in Bathurst (Australia), which became what is now the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy North Sydney. She also sent two sisters to join other Sisters of Mercy in Crimea. Under her direction, schools for the needy were founded in numerous places. Mother Ligouri frequently offered hospitability to Sisters of Mercy on their way (via Liverpool) to ministry locations in the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Bernadette Roche, “Mother Mary Ligouri Gibson”, Mercy International Association, accessed 6 May 2024.  https://www.mercyworld.org/catherine/mercy-foundresses/mother-mary-ligouri-gibson/