Mary Virginia Merrick and the Christ Child Society

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mary Virginia Merrick was a child of wealth, and of deep prayer and a special love for Christ. From an early age she understood that the way to do things was to do every thing — every small thing — with great love. Eventually one is doing great things, even if unintentionally. The day she received her First Holy Communion whe vowed to become a religious sister and to help Christ by helping the poor. But an accident when she was 14 left her paralyzed from the neck down. She didn't let her painful and debilitating ailment stop her. From her bed and lounging wheelchair she organized others to help the poor. Eventually she and her helpers founded the Christ Child Society to help expectant mothers, orphans, and those whose parents could not afford to give them a good Christmas. The Society grew to a regional, then a national, and eventually an international organization under her leadership. She led the Society until she was 82 years old, while also authoring several books for children and publishing a regular column for children. The Christ Child Society still helps many thousands of families every year.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History.
0:09.0	If you like our podcast, help others find it by sharing this episode and giving us a five-star
0:14.5	rating wherever you get your podcasts.
0:17.4	I'm Noel Hister Crowe.
0:18.6	And I'm Tom Crow.
0:19.6	Today we're talking about Servant of God Mary Virginia Merrick.
0:24.1	She was born into wealth and was the descendant of some of the original Maryland Catholic
0:28.8	families.
0:29.9	In spite of suffering, a paralyzing accident, she founded one of the most significant charitable
0:35.0	organizations in our nation's history.
0:37.3	Her remarkable story can really make you wonder, okay. one of the most significant charitable organizations in our nation's history.
0:43.0	Her remarkable story can really make you wonder, okay, so what's my excuse for not accomplishing great things?
0:44.3	I know. It's true. But she wouldn't see it that way. She didn't set out to accomplish great
0:51.3	things, but as she would say, to see a need is to fill it. So she
0:56.3	was simply filling needs that she saw. Right. She started her work a few decades before St.
1:02.1	Thereseu was born, but she took the same approach as the little flower. Just do all of the
1:08.0	things with great love and let God take care of the rest.
1:11.8	And by being faithful to what God put in her heart to do, great things were accomplished.
1:17.9	Boy, howdy, I'd say so. And like you said, this was in spite of being paralyzed and in pain for most of her life.
1:25.4	So let's go back to the beginning of her life and give some details.
1:29.0	She was born in Washington, D.C. on November 2, 1866, so about a year and a half after the
1:35.8	Civil War ended, and President Lincoln was assassinated.
	...

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