Mother Teresa Austin Carroll, a freshly professed sister from Cork, Ireland, agreed to travel to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1856. Providence had been established only five years prior.

Teresa was trained as a teacher at the Clonmel National Model School and was highly sought after as an educator, especially for teacher training. She served briefly in Hartford, Buffalo, and Rochester between 1857 and 1859, then was one of the community missionaries to establish Manchester, NH, in 1864. From Manchester, she went with the foundation group to Omaha in 1864, then went on to St. Louis in 1866, and on again to New Orleans in 1869. In 1883, she was sent as a foundress to Belize. At the age of 56, she went to Selma, AL, as the founding superior. In addition to her work as a foundress and educator, Mother Teresa Austin Carroll was one of the early historians of the Mercy world. In 1866, the biography she wrote of the foundress, “The Life of Catherine McAuley,” was published by The Vincent Press, St. Louis, Mo. 

Margaret Anne Caroll was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary in 1835, the fourth of nine children of William and Margaret Strahan Carroll.  From her father, she acquired a special appreciation of Irish history and literature.  She also learned from her family during the famine years to be generous to the poor.  These early lessons influenced the direction of her life.  She entered the Sisters of Mercy at Saint Maries of the Isle in Cork in 1854 and was professed in 1856.  In the same year, she volunteered for Providence (RI) and began a life of taking Mercy to many communities in the United States of America.

Teresa Austin came under the influence of Mother M. Josephine Warde, Mother Superior of Saint Maries of the Isle, Cork, who was an early companion of Catherine McAuley and sister of Frances Warde.  It was Frances who became known as the American foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, and Teresa went to America in response to an appeal from Frances.  Teresa was deeply imbued with the spirit of Catherine.  Catherine made every effort to train her teachers, and Teresa had a strong influence in the field of Mercy education, including the training of teachers.  The Mercy world owes a great deal to Teresa Austin for her work in gathering and recording information about Catherine McAuley. 

Teresa was asked by Frances Warde to collect information on Catherine McAuley and the early years of the Mercy Congregation. She amassed material from sisters scattered all over the world and, in 1866, published “The Life of Catherine McAuley," which remains a significant biography of the Foundress. It must have been very difficult for her to find time for writing in the middle of the many demands made on her services as a leader in education and in the pioneering conditions in which she worked. Teresa faced one of her most difficult challenges when she took over leadership of the Selma AL Foundation at the age of 56. Alabama was a new missionary diocese, and the conditions were basic.

Teresa was one of the founding members of several foundations, some of which are listed above. She had a strong influence on education and would have been proud to see the significant growth of Mercy education now strongly established in many Mercy institutions in the USA.  She began numerous works of mercy among the black and white poor communities along the Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast, as well as through the foundation she made in Belize, Central America.