Mother Mary Frances Aikenhead (19 January 1787 – 22 July 1858) was born in Daunt's Square off Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland.

The daughter of David Aikenhead, a physician, member of the Anglican Church of Ireland, and Mary Stacpole, a Roman Catholic.

Her grandfather, also named David Aikenhead, was a Scottish gentleman who relinquished his military profession, married a Limerick lady, Miss Anne Wight and settled in Cork.

On one occasion Lord Edward Fitzgerald disguised as a Quaker sought refuge in the Aikenhead home.

[2] At about the age of nine Mary began to spend a good deal of time visiting her maternal grandmother, where she was exposed to Catholic beliefs and practice through her widowed aunt, Mrs. Gorman.

[4] In 1808, Mary went to stay with her friend Anna Maria (born Ball) O’Brien in Dublin whom she had met in Cork.

[5] Here she witnessed widespread unemployment and poverty and soon began to accompany her friend in visiting the poor and sick in their homes.

[6] At the time that Aikenhead established her congregation, there were only a hundred women in religious orders in Ireland, all enclosed contemplatives.

Her activity was unceasing, however, and she directed her sisters in their heroic work during the plague of 1832, placed them in charge of new institutions, and sent them on missions to France and in 1835 to Australia.