Its foundress, Mary Virginia Merrick, was proclaimed a “servant of God” in 2002, and Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C., recently gave permission for her cause for sainthood to proceed.
Merrick was born into a well-off Washington family (her father was one of the founders of Georgetown Law School), but her life was far from a bed of roses. Disabled as the result of a fall from a tree at the age of 14, she also suffered from Pott’s disease, a form of tuberculosis that causes arthritis-like effects in the spine. And her parents died before she was 18.
Despite her infirmities, Merrick’s great devotion to the Christ Child spurred her to be of service to poor children in theWashingtonarea.
“She was determined that she was going to make a difference,” said Maureen Wesley, a former president of the Christ Child Society of Detroit and president-elect of the National Christ Child Society.
“She gathered friends together to sew layettes for pregnant women,” said Wesley, a member of St. Thomas More Parish in Troy.
In those early years, there was no formal organization — “she just went out there and found people to make it work,” Wesley said. But her efforts led her to found the Christ Child Society in 1887.
The national organization dates its founding to what started out as just a local Washington group.
Perhaps Merrick’s best-remembered quote is “Nothing is ever too much to do for a child.”
The first chapter outside Washington was founded in Omaha, Neb., in 1908, and then the Detroit chapter in 1912. The society is now 41 chapters strong, with six in formation.
The National Christ Child Society held its first convention in 1927 at the Book-Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit, and will return to Detroit for a third time Sept. 20-21, again at the Book-Cadillac.
“This is a very exciting time for us,” said Wesley, who will assume her duties as national president at the Detroit convention.
