Margaret Anna Cusack | |
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![]() Memorial to Margret Anna Cusack in Dublin | |
Born | 6 May 1829 Mercer Street/York Street, Dublin, Ireland |
Died | 5 June 1899 (aged 70) Leamington Spa, England, UK |
Other names | Sister Mary Francis Cusack Mother Margaret |
Occupation | Foundress of Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace religious congregation |
Margaret Anna Cusack (born 6 May 1829[1] in a house at the corner of Mercer Street and York Street (now known as Cusack Corner),[2] Dublin, Ireland – died 5 June 1899), also known as Sister Mary Francis Cusack and Mother Margaret, was first an Irish Anglican nun, then a Catholic nun, then a religious sister and the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, and then an Anglican (or possibly a Methodist). By 1870 more than 200,000 copies of her works which ranged from biographies of saints to pamphlets on social issues had circulated throughout the world, the proceeds from which went towards victims of the Famine of 1879 and helping to feed the poor.
An independent and controversial figure, Cusack was a passionate Irish nationalist, often at odds with the ecclesiastical hierarchy.