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The Society of the
Medical Missionaries of Mary
“IN CARITATE RADICATI ET FUNDATI”
St. Paul to the Ephesians, c. iii, v. 19

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The Medical Missionaries of Mary
The Society of the Medical Missionaries of Mary was founded in response to the appeal made by the late Holy Father, Pope Pius XI (the Pope of the Missions), that new Institutes of Sisters be formed for Medical work on the Mission field and with special concentration on Maternity and Child Welfare Work.
The members of the Society are Religious with public and perpetual vows, trained according to the common prescriptions of Canon Law and of their own special constitutions. As their life is very exposed with much freedom of action for their Apostolic Work, a solid Religious training is given for the cultivation of a deep interior life.
The constitutions have been specially framed to meet the needs of the new work. The Sisters are animated by the Spirit of St. Benedict in a broad Spirit of Charity and allow the Professed Sisters to be at the service of the sick at any hour of the day or night. Their external religious practices are as unostentatious as possible. The dress worn is a plain professional one, adaptable to varying conditions of time and place.
All branches of Medical work will be undertaken by the Sisters. They will be specially trained and qualified as Doctors, Dentists, Chemists, Nurses, Laboratory and Radiological Technicians, and Public Health workers. Specialisation will always be encouraged, as the Society plans to have its Medical work carried out on the most modern and scientific lines. There are also non-medical members trained in various works of Social Service as Hospital Almoners, Domestic Science Teachers and Housekeepers trained for home planning in the Tropics.
Through their Social Services they hope to help Missionary Priests in building up Christian families in the various Mission fields where they may be called to work. Although their particular end and their main care, both in their Hospitals and Public Health work, is the care of the mother and child, they aim at alleviating all the miseries and suffering of the sick, in the Spirit of Our Lord Who went about doing good, healing the sick.
No Medical work will be refused and the Sisters will be as free to work in the University Clinics, Maternity and Surgical Units as in Isolated Hospitals and Leper Settlements. They will also be free to run isolated Dispensaries and visit patients in their homes. The conducting of Catholic Medical Colleges and Training Schools for native medical women and nurses will be one of their special works.
The Foundress, Mother Mary of the Incarnation Martin, has taken as the motto of the Society, the inspired words of St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians (iii, 19) "In Caritate Radicati et Fundati," rooted and founded in Charity. The Medical Missionaries of Mary pray that the Lord, the giver of all good gifts, may give them a spark of that zeal of the Apostle of the Gentiles; they wish to make their lives a perpetual act of charity, animated by intense and fervent religious spirit, combined with the fullest
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professional proficiency. Their Mission field is vast, and more and more professional members and young subjects with suitable education to train in the various branches of medicine are needed. The requirements of admission to the Society are those laid down by Canon Law, and the Constitutions.
In April 1937, the Society was erected into a Religious Congregation by the Most Rev. Mgr. Moynagh, Prefect Apostolic of Calabar, Sth. Nigeria. On the Feast of the Nativity, 1937, the Sisters took charge of St. Luke's Hospital, Anua, Sth. Nigeria. This hospital has 120 beds and a well-equipped theatre and dispensary, at which hundreds of patients are treated daily. Dispensary work is undertaken in different areas on the Mission field. In January, 1938, the House of Studies was established at Rosemount, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, with the approval of His Grace Dr. Byrne, Archbishop of Dublin. In the end of the same year the Novitiate of the Society was opened in Co. Louth by His Eminence Cardinal MacRory, Primate of All Ireland, and in the presence of His Excellency The Apostolic Nuncio, Most Rev. Paschal Robinson. At the request of the Ecclesiastic Authorities they are taking charge of The Hospital of Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda. Mother Mary has accepted the gracious offer of the Rev. Mgr. O'Callaghan, Archdeacon of Drogheda, to build her Novitiate on the same site which it is hoped will be completed within the next year, when the Novices will be transferred from Collon. These works are a great drain on the personnel as well as the finances of a young Society. Vocations are urgently needed.
As soon as Mary heard of her cousin St. Elizabeth's hour of need, the Gospel tells us that "rising up in those days, she went into the hill country with haste, into the city of Judea." We are confident that this call will sound in the hearts of many young Catholic women of Ireland and of other lands who have heard of the pressing needs of so many women and children in the pagan countries, and they must be anxious to help Our Lady to bring Christ to those suffering mothers, and to help her to make Christ known to the pagan children. Our Lady brought Christ to St. Elizabeth, the Medical Missionaries of Mary prepare the way of Christ's coming through the ministry of His priests.
Money is also needed to meet the material expenses of such an undertaking, and to keep our Hospitals and Dispensaries in the condition required for scientific and efficient work.
But the great need is for constant and fervent prayer. Men and women, not themselves able to go on to the Missions, are asked to assist by prayers and alms, to help Mary Queen of Peace in brightening pagan lands by the light of Christ's peace in rescuing those innumerable mothers and children, in forming truly Catholic homes through the Medical and Social Services of the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
A confident appeal is made to the Cloistered Nuns, and to the sick and suffering in hospitals and in their homes, to help the Sisters of the Medical Missionaries of Mary by their prayers and generous offering of their sufferings
for these Sisters working in tropical lands against many odds, long hours in tropical heat, difficulties of native customs and food, and material discomforts of many kinds.
All may join in the work in the same spirit of Apostolic Charity.
PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS.
MARY, Mother of God, Mediatrix of Grace, we humbly beseech thee to intercede with thy Divine Son for an increase of devoted Handmaids who, renouncing the world to embrace a life of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, will spend themselves in the service of God for the sick and suffering, as Medical Missionaries of Mary, for God's greater glory, their own sanctification and the salvation of souls.
"The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that He send forth labourers into the harvest." (St. Matthew ix, 37-38).
All interested should communicate with the Mother General of the Society,
MOTHER MARY MARTIN,
MEDICAL MISSIONARIES OF MARY,
ROSEMOUNT,
BOOTERSTOWN, DUBLIN.
SACRA CONGREGAZIONE DE PROPAGANDA FIDE,
ROME,
16th August, 1938.
Very Reverend Mother,
Your letter of July 31st gave me great pleasure and I appreciate the expression of gratitude and thanks you address to the Sacred Congregation.
I trust that the Novitiate which is now under consideration may soon be a consoling reality and give a new impulse to the spirit of charity which distinguishes your community.
The news you gave me concerning the work of the Sisters in Africa is indeed welcome and I take for my own charity "I have had great joy and consolation in your charity."
And I close this letter with the beautiful words of that same great Apostle addressed to the Philippians: And this I pray: that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding."
I pray God to fill you all with His graces and as an earnest of heavenly favours and witness of my good will I bless you with all my heart.
Yours devotedly in Christ,
(Sgd.) P. CARD. FUMASONI-BIONDI, PREF.
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From the letter of Mgr. Riberi:
Dear Rev. Mother,
This is the first letter I write you in your capacity of Foundress and Superioress of the new Congregation of Mary's Medical Missionaries. Let me, therefore, begin by expressing my warmest congratulations for having so quickly secured from the Holy See such an enthusiastic approval of the New Missionary Congregation. No doubt, this wonderful way of giving you an approval that comes so promptly and wholeheartedly from the Holy See has its meaning. It means, besides the ordinary approval of something which is good in itself, the supreme importance which is attached to your undertaking—nay, the pressing urgency of your intended work.
It has already been my pleasant duty, after consultation with the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda to urge on the Superiors General of various Missionary Congregations working in this Delegation the necessity of having Sisters who are fully qualified doctors. During my tours in Africa I have been privileged to see how much they can do in the Mission field. So let me hope that you will be able to prepare many Sister Doctors.
But, meanwhile, the Irish Missionaries, although working everywhere with wonderful enthusiasm, and in some places with great measure of success, in many parts they are severely handicapped by two principal factors: having come late in the field, and being deprived of Medical Missionaries.
You intend, dear Rev. Mother, with generous heart, to make up for this latter deficiency. Let me, therefore, wish you every success in your very timely undertaking.
I will not conclude this letter, however, without addressing an earnest appeal to those Irish girls, full of zeal and faith, who, were they to know the wonderful possibilities awaiting them in Mary's Medical Missionaries would gladly join them.
Hoping that this appeal will have a favourable response, I remain, dear Mother Mary, with renewed congratulations.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
ANT. RIBERI,
Archbishop of Dara,
Apostolic Delegate.
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