[3] The priest Francis Xavier Fischer blessed their work while on 31 July 1844 the first five religious - including herself - signed the statutes for this movement though the number of signatories soon dropped to four on 8 May 1846 with Merkert's sister's death from typhus.

Fischer then encouraged the surviving members to enter the novitiate with the Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo in Prague and on 25 December 1846 began their religious formation there.

On 19 November 1850 she started in her hometown the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth to care for abandoned patients in their own homes and that December submitted the statutes for the order as well as the names of those involved in it.

[1][3] On 4 September 1859 the Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster granted diocesan approval for the association and recognized it as a religious congregation.

[1] Her congregation now operates in places such as Lithuania and Russia and it received full papal approval on 26 January 1887 from Pope Leo XIII.

Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided over Merkert's beatification in Poland on 30 September 2007 on the behalf of Benedict XVI.