Mollie Rogers (Mother Mary Joseph), founder of the Maryknoll Sisters, d 10/9 1955. The seeds of her vocation came as a student at Smith—her regret that there was no Catholic counterpart to Protestant mission organizations. At that time America was itself a mission field.
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Later with other women she joined to assist Fr James Walsh and Thomas Price who were founding the . But she wondered why there should not be an order of women in mission—not just supporting the priests but engaging in direct evangelization.
The Maryknoll Srs were founded 1920. Mollie described their ideal features: “I would have her distinguished by Christ-like charity, a limpid simplicity of soul, heroic generosity, selflessness, unfailing loyalty, prudent zeal, gracious courtesy, an adaptable disposition...
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...solid piety, and the saving grace of a kindly humor.” At the time of her death in 1955 there were 1100 MK Srs serving on four continents. “There is nothing more astonishing than life, just as it is, nothing more miraculous than growth and change and development...
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...And as happens so often when we stop to regard God’s work, there is nothing to do but wonder and thank Him, realizing how little we planned, how little we achieved, and yet how much has been done.”—Mother Mary Rogers
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