Mary Joseph Rogers

Mary Joseph Rogers (born Oct. 27, 1882, Boston—died Oct. 9, 1955, New York City) was the founder of the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, popularly called the Maryknoll Sisters, an American religious congregation devoted specifically to foreign mission work.

She was graduated in 1905 from Smith College, Northampton, Mass., where she had been encouraged by Father James Walsh to establish a constructive activity for Roman Catholic students. Her interest in missionary work grew when she joined the staff of Field Afar, the magazine of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll Missioners), which Walsh had cofounded in 1911. In 1912 the society gave her and five companions a house at Hawthorne, N.Y., where the lay group subsequently became known as Teresians (after St. Teresa of Avila).

Under the protection of the archbishop of New York, the Teresians were trained for the religious life, and in February 1916 they became Dominican Tertiaries. They were recognized by the pope in January 1917 as a sisterhood devoted to foreign missions, thus being called Dominican Tertiaries of the Foreign Missions. On Feb. 14, 1920, they received papal approbation as a diocesan religious congregation, the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic (Dominicans of the Third Order), and Mary Joseph was elected superior general, a position she held until her resignation in 1946.

The first group of Maryknoll Sisters went to southern China on Sept. 8, 1921. Mother Rogers founded the motherhouse at Maryknoll, N.Y., in the early 1930s and worked to establish similar centres and to prepare women for missionary work. By the time of her death, more than 1,100 Maryknoll Sisters had been sent throughout the world.