Mary Virginia Merrick, born in Washington, DC, was a pioneer in American Catholic social reform. At age 20, despite being paralyzed, from a fall, and confined to her bed or reclining wheelchair, she started the Christ Child Society in 1887 to provide for needy infants, children, and their families in the Washington, D.C. area. During her lifetime, she grew the National Christ Child Society to 38 chapters, and today it operates branches in 43 locations with nearly 6,000 members.
Merrick's cause for canonization began in 2001 in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; she was designated a "Servant of God" in the Catholic Church in 2003. The Archdiocesan Phase of her Cause for Beatification and Canonization was opened in 2011. If she is canonized, Merrick will be one of the first U.S.-born saints in the Catholic Church and among a small number of disabled saints.