Mary Glowrey (1887 to 1957) was born in Birregurra, Victoria. She was educated in Melbourne through scholarships and worked as a doctor in Melbourne. In 1915 she experienced a vocational calling to assist marginalised women and children in India as a medical missionary. She prepared quietly, serving the community during the busy war years. In 1916 she became the founding General President of the Catholic Women’s Social Guild (now the Catholic Women’s League of Victoria and Wagga Wagga).

Mary Glowrey left Australia in 1920. She travelled to India, where she joined the Dutch congregation known as the Society of Jesus Mary Joseph in Guntur, in present day Andhra Pradesh. With permission from Pope Benedict XV, she became the first Sister doctor.

For more than three decades, based in Guntur, Sr Mary of the Sacred Heart JMJ, as Mary Glowrey was known, oversaw the medical care of hundreds of thousands of patients. She worked with the Sisters to establish St Joseph’s Hospital, healthcare training systems and the organisation today known as the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), India’s largest non-government healthcare network. She died in Bangalore (Bengaluru) in 1957.

Mary Glowrey was accorded the title Servant of God in 2013. Her Cause for Canonisation is being considered by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

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