Biography
Over 125 years ago, a young woman's act of love for an unborn child started what has grown to a national organization dedicated to serving children in need: the Christ Child Society.
​Born on November 2, 1866, the second of eight children of Richard and Nannie Merrick, Mary Virginia Merrick could have been expected to follow the usual path of a female child of a well-to-do Washington family. Mary's father was a prominent attorney who was descended from the Calverts of Maryland and other prominent Maryland families and the family lived comfortably at a home in Washington, DC.
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Life for this child of privilege changed forever when she was a young teenager. A fall led to lifelong paralysis. Unable to sit without support, Mary spent the rest of her life in a reclining position or in a wheel chair.
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Despite her constant pain, she dedicated her life to service for others. Mary's sincere and simple love of God inspired her to answer the desperate social needs she recognized in Washington.
Mary wrote in her autobiography:
"I was always in bed or on the sofa, but I learned to sew and write in this recumbent position ... I suffered constantly ... I made a resolution never to speak of my health ... (then) the blow fell—I learned that I would never run with my sisters—and there stretched before me long years of helplessness that had always been harder to bear than suffering ... I never doubted the love of the Father, but my spirit rebelled at the thought that I would be useless in His vineyard ... I strove to serve as best I could... I resolved to do something every day for the Christ Child."
The needs of the children of the region at the time were many, and shortly after losing both of her parents at the age of 17 Mary established the Christ Child Society in 1887 to meet those needs.
Mary overcame the challenge of sparse resources by forming alliances. Her leadership and collaborative efforts served as an inspiration to those around her, and the work of the Society—which began with the provision of a layette to a poor new mother at Christmastime—broadened and evolved. The Society was a charter member of Catholic Charities and of Community Chest, later known as the United Way.
Over the decades, Mary and those who joined her were to touch the lives of countless children and their families. As the world around them changed, their work changed to meet the needs of the times.
In Washington they established camps; a convalescent home for children, later to become an institute for emotionally disturbed children; and many neighborhood centers. Some of these led to the later establishment of parishes in the District.
Layettes, toys, shoes and clothes, but most of all love, caring and respect, brought a personal element to the mission of the Society.
Today's Christ Child Society Chapters, with over 5,000 members throughout the United States, come from a rich heritage of women and men striving to meet the needs of children in each generation. As the Society faces the challenges of the years ahead, its members can look back to this unassuming woman for insight and inspiration.
Spirituality
Mary Virginia Merrick’s holiness was evident at a very young age and remained evident throughout her life. As a young girl, she developed a strong devotion to the Blessed Monther, which led her as a young woman to commit to wearing only blue and white clothing the rest of her life in Our Lady's honor.
Dealt a blow to her health as a result of a fall in her early teens she relied on her faith to work through her pain and infirmity the rest of her life. Her desire to serve the poor was rooted in her Incarnational Spirituality, her deep devotion to the Christ Child.
She said in her autobiography:
“When I read ‘she wrapped him in swaddling clothes,’ I longed to do the same, and He Himself taught me that I might do so in the person of His poor and a great desire was born within me to go out and find the poor that I might find Him.”
As the finality of her life as an invalid was confirmed by her doctor at age 18, she wrote:
“My cross, no longer lit with the sun of hope, was heavier to carry. I found my friends and my family had not shared my optimism. The days and months that followed of mental readjustment were most difficult. I think I never doubted the love of our Father, but my spirit rebelled at the thought that I would be useless in His vineyard.”
As she struggled to adjust to a future with physical limitations, she wrote:
“So my soul was being fashioned and my life adjusted to meet the future of limitations and barriers and yet leave my soul free to soar. Why should my soul and my spirit be crippled, I would ask myself, because my body was crippled? That same great love that moves the masterwheels of time and ‘moves the sun and moon and stars’ was bringing harmony back into my life.”
Stained Glass Window of the Christ Child commemorating the 100th Birthday of Mary Virginia Merrick, Servant of God,at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Washington, DC.
She gave her whole life to God through 71 years of work for children consistent with the motto she established for the Christ Child Society: “Laborare est orare” translated to english “To work is to pray”
She wrote:
“Best gift of all, I offer You your Son now resting within me, and with Him, I, a little child, offer myself to You, for You made me to know You, and to love You and to serve You, good God.”
Her spirituality was inspirational to others both during her life and beyond. Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal O’Boyle, on being informed of Mary Virginia Merrick’s death in 1955, released this statement to the Catholic Standard, the paper of the archdiocese:
“Miss Mary Merrick’s long life was an inspiring expression of the power and beauty of Christian charity. She saw the image of the infant savior in every poor child and it was the Christ Child who conferred upon her a long life of amazing successful activity that defied an almost lifelong infirmity. It was inevitable that she establish the Christ Child Society . . . . Both in spirit and accomplishment, no society has better deserved its sublime name. Miss Mary from her bed of pain – perpetually dynamic and devoted –has a lesson for everyone who professes to be a follower of Christ.”
During his funeral Sermon, Bishop John J. McNamara said:
“Mary Merrick was only a teenager when she met with an accident that left her with a broken back but fortunately with an unbroken spirit. Had it been otherwise, she might well have become as victim of her own self pity. Tears and lamentations would have been her daily fare and all who tended her would have felt the weight of her cross. But no; she was made of sterner stuff; she would live not merely exist. And so it was that she took her cross and out of it fashioned a bridge over which she and others would walk on their way to God. . . .”
Timeline
Mary Virginia Merrick was a holy woman, whom many contemporaries considered a living saint who founded an organization that she personally guided from its start to a national organization because of her love of the Christ Child. She viewed her service to poor children as a living call to bring others to the Lord. She believed firmly in the need for lay action in the church and serves for us today as an example of how to live our lives sas we are all called to be saints through our Baptism
How Her Work Began
Excerpt from The Early Years of the Christ Child Society, Mildred C. Merrick (1960), written by Mary Virginia Merrick’s sister:
Mary with her sisters
Before the Christmas of 1884, at the age of sixteen, Mary gathered around her a small group of young girls ... and organized them into a sewing circle whose objective was a complete baby outfit for a mother in need in honor of the Holy Infant. ... Undaunted by her enforced recumbent position, Mary herself sewed on the infant garments while guiding and encouraging her helpers.
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Her faithful friend, Miss Delarue, in her visits among the poor, had discovered an expectant mother whose child was due at this Holy Season. ... the poverty existing in this home was extreme, the husband ill and out of work and the five small children in need of food and clothing. ... [t]he recipient of the first Christ Child layette was named after Mary, and later entered a religious order.
As so many of the activities of the Society grew from small beginnings, the Christmas giving followed the same pattern. ...[As] a boy named Paul .... stood by her couch one day, she asked him what he wanted for Christmas. "I want a red wagon," he promptly replied, "but we're not having any Christmas at our house, my father's got no work." ... Again she heard the call of the Holy Infant. She ... made the suggestion ... that he write a letter to the Christ Child and ask him for the red wagon. "Who's He?" asked Paul. "He's the Giver of all good gifts," she replied. ... A few days later he appeared with a handful of letters, written by his sisters and brothers and little playmates in the neighborhood.
With trust in her small band of workers she called them together and told them of her suggestion to Paul and his prompt response. ... All the requests were carefully filled ... each well-wrapped package was marked "From the Christ Child."
More about Her Life
Magnificat article about her in their July 2024 edition, page159, under a "Credible Witnesses" article by Heather King, "Servant of God Mary Virginia Merrick” Click Here
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Mary Virginia Merrick, Nothing is Ever Too Much to Do for a Child. Aleteia podcast. October 29, 2017. Click Here
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Sanctity in America: Servant of God Mary Virginia Merrick - Thoughts and Prayers for the Faithful. Click Here​​​
Videos
The Life & Legacy of Mary Virginia Merrick, 1866-1955, National Christ Child Society (42 minutes)
Mary Virginia Merrick and the Christ Child Society. American Catholic History podcast #106. July 19, 2021 (20 minutes)
Saints of the Americas Vincent Capodanno, Mary Virginia Merrick, Solanus Casey, Saints of the Americas, Catholic Diocese of Youngstown (Merrick section starts at 10:23)
Mary Virginia Merrick, National Christ Child Founder, National Christ Child Society (12 minutes)
Could This Be The Next Saint Out Of The United States?, Jerome Chung (5 minutes)
For more information about how Mary Virginia Merrick’s spirituality inspires the work of the National Christ Child Society today, see Her Legacy