Mary Joseph Rogers

Mary Joseph Rogers, MM (October 27, 1882 – October 9, 1955)[1] was the founder of the Maryknoll Sisters, the first congregation of Catholic women in the United States to organize a global mission. Rogers attended Smith College and was inspired in 1904 by graduating Protestant students preparing to leave for missionary work in China. After her graduation, she returned to the school and founded a mission club for Catholic students in 1905.

While organizing the club, she met Father James A. Walsh, director of Boston’s Office for the Propagation of the Faith, later founder of Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers, through whom she was inspired to establish a mission congregation for women. Rogers moved to Boston in 1908 to teach at public schools and attend the Boston Normal School. The Maryknoll Sisters were founded in 1912. By the time of her death, the Maryknoll Sisters had over 1000 sisters working in some twenty countries.[2] Mother Mary Joseph Rogers was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2013.[3]

  1. ^ "ROGERS, Mother Mary Joseph". Notable American Women: The Modern Period (6th ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts [u.a.]: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. 1993. pp. 590–591. ISBN 978-0-674-62733-8.
  2. ^ "Nine Extraordinary Women Named as National Women's Hall of Fame Inductees". National Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  3. ^ National Women's Hall of Fame, Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, MM