CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Maryknoll Sisters

Roman Catholic religious congregation for women

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ941717 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Maryknoll Sisters (formerly the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic/Teresians) are an institute of Catholic religious sisters founded in the village of Ossining, Westchester County, New York, in 1912, six months after the 1911 creation of the Maryknoll community of missionary brothers and fathers. Until 1954, when they became a pontifical institute, the religious institute was known as the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic. The sisters use the suffix "MM" after their names.

History

The institute was founded in 1912 by Mother Mary Joseph (née Mary Josephine "Mollie" Rogers), from Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a graduate of Smith College (1905). In 1914 one of the Teresians' earliest benefactors, Julia Ward, took Rogers to Europe. They visited Our Lady of Lourdes in France and Vatican City. This was Roger's first experience of the European Catholic approach religious congregation devoted specifically to foreign mission work. Having only been exposed to Protestant missionary attitudes at Smith College, Rogers had patterned the Teresians on that model: active, practical, and pious.

Editorial summary

“Maryknoll Sisters” enters the record as roman Catholic religious congregation for women. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maryknoll, Sisters and Roman can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1912, 1911, 1954, 1905—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1912-01-16. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Maryknoll, Sisters and Roman.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Maryknoll Sisters” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Maryknoll, Sisters and Roman provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q941717. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1912, 1911, 1954 and 1905.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Maryknoll Sisters”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Maryknoll Sisters primary sources, Maryknoll Sisters archive and Maryknoll research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Maryknoll Sisters”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Maryknoll Sisters” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.