Mother Mary Joseph Rogers: She used her gifts wisely

She was the right person, in the right place, at the right time, for the right cause.  Her name was Mary Joseph Rogers.

Mary Joseph Rogers, “Mollie,” was born on October 27, 1882 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, one of eight children of Abraham Rogers and Josephine Plummer.  The family had to practice their Catholic faith discretely, for at the time, there was a general distrust of Irish Americans.

After attending public schools through the 12^th grade, Mollie went to Smith College in her home state, majoring in zoology.  While at Smith, she was fascinated by a small group of Protestant students who were going to China for missionary work.   Mollie graduated in 1905.

After graduating from Smith, the college invited her to work in the zoology department while working on a Master’s degree.  So, Mary Joseph came back to Smith.  But while there, a faculty member, interested in starting service clubs in the student body, asked her if she would start a club.  Mary decided to start a mission club for Catholic students, much like the one that the Protestants had.  This led her to seek the help of the head of the Propagation of the Faith for Boston, Fr. James Anthony Walsh.  Fr. James would later become a bishop and co-founder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, more commonly known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. 

Mary Joseph first began to help Fr. James with a magazine he was publishing, The Field Afar.  This she willingly did with some other young women. 

In 1911, Fr. Walsh co-founded the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers with Fr. Thomas Frederick Price of Wilmington, North Carolina. 

In 1912, Fr. Walsh asked Mary Joseph Rogers to head up her little group of women to help him.  Soon, the idea of a Maryknoll group for women was born.  Because Mary Joseph had never gone to a Catholic school and gotten to know Religious Sisters, she enlisted the help of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin.  In February of 1920, Mollie’s group of 35 women, became an official congregation.  Today, this group is known as the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic or, simply, “the Congregation” to distinguish it from the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers, “the Society.”  Mary Joseph became “Mother Mary Joseph” and served as the congregation’s leader until she retired.

One of the beauties of Mother Rogers’ leadership is that she understood that the missionary life does not follow a highly regimented lifestyle found in cloistered groups.  Because of that, Maryknoll Sisters need to develop their individual skills and remain in God’s presence at all times.  Specifically, she said, “In our active religious life, we don’t have time for sustained and long prayer.  We must cultivate union with God at every possible moment.”

Mother Mary Joseph died in New York Hospital on October 9, 1955.  Before she died, she told the Maryknoll Sisters who brought her to the hospital to be sure the physicians got a break.

 Today, the congregation that Mary Joseph founded, has a missionary presence worldwide.