Margaret Hallahan

Margaret Hallahan (23 January 1803 in London – 10 May 1868) was an English Catholic nun, foundress of the Dominican Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena (third order);

Biography

Margaret Hallahan's parents were poor Irish Catholics, who died when their only child was nine years old. She was sent to an orphanage at Somers Town for two years, and then at the age of eleven went out to service, in which state of life she remained a for nearly thirty years. In 1826 she accompanied the family in which she was living to Bruges; there she tried her vocation as a lay sister in the convent of the English Augustinian nuns, but only remained there a week.

She became a Dominican tertiary in 1842, and then came to England, proceeding to Coventry where she worked under William Bernard Ullathorne, afterwards Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, among the factory girls. Presently she was joined by others, and with the consent of the Dominican fathers formed a community of Dominican tertiaries, who were to devote themselves to active works of charity.