View from the Mission House veranda at Calabar, Nigeria, 1922

"He sent me to bring
the Good News to the poor."
Evangelzare pauperibus misit me.

Early in his mission, Jesus recited these words from the Book of Isaiah. They are embedded on the banner and in the hearts of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary.

Nigeria, 1921
The future founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, Bishop Joseph Shanahan, a Holy Ghost Father from Tipperary, Ireland and Vicar Apostolic of Southern Nigeria, hoped to expand missionary outreach to women in Nigeria. In 1921, he wrote about missionary efforts there: 27 European priests and brothers, with the assistance of 540 catechists, had evangelized and educated 34,137 men and boys in 10 outposts throughout the country. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, France, had retired and departed after 15 years without rest. The bishop, concerned about the region’s women and girls, publicized the need and called for laywomen missionaries.

In 1921, Agnes Ryan, a medical student and midwife (who later became Mother Therese) and Mary Martin, a nurse and midwife, sailed from Ireland to Nigeria and adapted as lay missionaries there. Several years later, Agnes would become a founding member of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary and later, "Mother Therese." In 1922, lay volunteers Elizabeth Ryan, Catherine Meagher, and Joan Murtagh from Ireland, and Veronica Hassen of the United States, joined them.

The bishop’s efforts to encourage religious congregations to come to Nigeria were not successful. During the Spring of 1922, Mary Martin met with Bishop Shanahan, missionary priests, and theologian Dr. Leen (who would become the new congregation’s first spiritual director). On the veranda at the Mission House in Calabar, they discussed the urgent need to evangelize women in Southern Nigeria. A generation of young men who had graduated from Catholic missionary schools wanted to marry Christian women. Shanahan, who had spent years crisscrossing Nigeria on foot, bicycle, and canoe, felt that the only way to establish lasting Christian families was to provide Christian formation for Nigerian women. He also wanted to address temporal concerns for women, such as health care and education.

Drumullac House, 1924

When the decision was made to found a congregation, the Dominican Sisters agreed to take the first group of young women to their convent in Cabra, until a house could be found. On October 2, 1923, Agnes Ryan, Elizabeth Ryan, Veronica Hassen, Christina Shannon, Norah Leddy, Ellen Byrnes, Georgina Dwyer, and Beatrice Lockett began their postulancy at Cabra. Mary Martin, an Irish nurse in Nigeria, and Philomena Fox from Philadelphia entered in June 1924.

By August 1924, the women had moved to a farm in Killeshandra, County Cavan, to become postulants at Drumullac House. Dr. Leen served as their first spiritual director. The Dominican Sisters of Cabra, Dublin, provided spiritual formation as well as guidance in managing the new congregation’s land and household. The postulants embraced their formation and the new tasks of farming, laundry, and fundraising. They soon had a financially viable farm with cattle and poultry.

First ten professed Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, novices, and postulants with Bishop Shanahan, February 1927

In February 1927, the first ten sisters made their profession to the Holy Rosary Sisters. Five would continue to work on the mission of congregational growth and the formation of new members in Ireland; five would prepare to travel to Nigeria to initiate their mission. These five studied the Igbo language and prepared to improve the livelihood for girls through a network of girls schools for teacher training, nursing, and technical instruction. They looked to Mary as a model for the innate dignity of women.

Nigeria, 1928
In January 1928, the first Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, accompanied by two Dominican Sisters, boarded a boat in Dublin headed for Liverpool and a two-week voyage to Calabar, Nigeria. The remaining sisters sang their congregation’s missionary hymn, Go Ye Afar, [link to lyrics] a tradition that continues today as Holy Rosary sisters depart for their missions.

On St. Patrick’s Day that year, the sisters laid the cornerstone in Onitsha for their first school. They struggled with challenges, changes, and the climate, and opened their first girls’ school, October 7, 1928, on the feast of the Holy Rosary.

Later, they started schools in Calabar, Emekuku, and Owerri. Teacher-training graduates assisted the sisters with new schools. The first school for Christian womanhood in Onitsha taught fiancées about catechism and domestic arts. The Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary opened a convent boarding school in 1930 and the Holy Rosary Hospital in 1933 in Emekuku, as well as other health care centers, maternity homes, schools, and training centers.

The Sister's Chapel. Killeshandra

Rome, 1938
Pope Pius XI, who had encouraged Bishop Shanahan to found the congregation, approved the constitution of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, granting official status as a religious order. By 1938, their missionary work was well underway.

Pennsylvania, USA, 1954
The Holy Rosary Sisters began their U.S. ministry in Philadelphia. They collected parish census data, ministered to youth and elderly poor, promoted vocations and missions, and sought funding.

Brazil, 1966
The Holy Rosary Sisters responded to Pope John III’s appeal for missionaries, despite Brazil’s repressive dictatorship. The sisters successfully formed Basic Christian Communities where people could gather, grow together, and create confidence to struggle for—and attain—better living conditions.

Killeshandra, Ireland

Africa, America, and Europe, 2004
Today, 380 Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, and 24 in formation (14 candidates and 10 novices), continue to empower women and bring the Good News to the poor in 15 countries in Africa (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia), the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, and the United States), and Europe (England, Ireland, and Scotland).

Nigeria, the congregation’s first missionary site, is now the main sending region for the Holy Rosary Sisters, which is a great consolation to the retiring Irish sisters who lived and served there.

Evangelzare pauperibus misit me.

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