Mary Glowrey
Servant of God Mary Glowrey JMJ | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | (1887-06-23)23 June 1887 Birregurra, Victoria, Australia |
Died | 5 May 1957(1957-05-05) (aged 69) Bangalore, Bayalu Seeme, India |
Mary Glowrey JMJ, religious name Mary of the Sacred Heart, (1887–1957) was an Australian born religious sister and educated doctor who spent 37 years in India, where she set up healthcare facilities, services and systems. She is believed to be the first religious sister to practise as a doctor.[1] The Catholic Church is investigating her cause for beatification and declared her a Servant of God in 2013.[2]
Early life
Mary Glowrey was born in the Victorian town of Birregurra on 23 June 1887.[3] Her family moved to Garvoc, then north to Watchem, in Victoria’s Mallee region. Her father, Edward Glowrey, operated the general store at Birregurra, then hotels at Garvoc and Watchem.
Education
In 1900 Glowrey came fourth of 800 entrants in a Victorian State Education secondary scholarship exam.[3] From 1901 to 1904 she attended South Melbourne College (SMC), in Bank Street, South Melbourne. She boarded at the Good Shepherd Convent in Albert Park. She matriculated at the end of her first year at SMC and won an Exhibition (scholarship) to study at the University of Melbourne.[4] Since she was too young to go to university, she continued studying subjects at SMC for the next three years.
In 1905 Glowrey completed her first year of a Bachelor of Arts course at the University of Melbourne. She was a student at Ormond College. In 1906, she transferred her course and scholarship to study medicine at the university. She attended the first year of the St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne Clinical School in 1910. She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1910.[5]
Glowrey later returned to the University of Melbourne to undertake higher medical studies, graduating with a Doctor of Medicine in 1919 in obstetrics, gynaecology and ophthalmology.[6]
Melbourne medical career
In 1911, Glowrey became the first female doctor at Christchurch Hospital and one of the first two women appointed to a residency position in New Zealand.[5] She returned to Melbourne in 1912. Her medical appointments in Melbourne included positions at Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital,[7] the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital.[5]
In October 1916, the Catholic Women’s Social Guild was formed at a meeting at Cathedral Hall, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.[6] Glowrey was the Guild's inaugural president. In that role, she gave lectures and wrote articles about some of the economic and social problems faced by women.[8]
Glowrey boarded at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital from 1915 to 1919 and took on many of the medical duties of the male doctors who signed up to serve in the First World War. She also had a private practice in Collins Street, Melbourne during these years.[9]
Life in India
In October 1915, Glowrey read a pamphlet about the life of Agnes McLaren, a pioneering Scottish missionary doctor, and the need for women doctors in India, and felt called to serve as a medical missionary doctor there.[10]
Glowrey discerned this religious vocation over subsequent years with her spiritual director, Father William Lockington SJ. She left Melbourne on 21 January 1920 and never returned to Australia. She arrived in Guntur, India on 12 February. She joined the Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph[6] and took the religious name Mary of the Sacred Heart.
In 1922, after the completion of her novitiate, Glowrey began practising as a doctor. The basic dispensary where Glowrey began her medical mission work in Guntur grew into St Joseph’s Hospital.[11] Glowrey provided direct medical care for hundreds of thousands of patients, most of them marginalised women. She trained local women to be compounders (dispensers), midwives and nurses.
In 1943 Glowrey founded the Catholic Health Association of India (then called the Catholic Hospitals' Association).[12] Today, its 3500+ members auspice the care of more than 21 million annually.[13]
Glowrey died in Bangalore from cancer on 5 May 1957 at 69 years of age.[14]
On the occasion of the Catholic Health Association of India's Platinum Jubilee in 2018, Liliane Fonds announced funding for Mary Glowrey - Liliane Brekelmans Disability Awards.[15]
The Mary Glowrey Museum in Melbourne published her partial autobiography with commentary in 2021.[16]
References
- ^ Mary Glowrey was granted special permission by Pope Benedict XV practise as a doctor in 1920.
- ^ Declaration of Dr. Sr. Mary Glowrey as Servant of Godhttp://www.jmjgunturprovince.org/maryglowrey.htm, Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph: Guntur Province, accessed 26 July 2017.
- ^ a b Mary Glowrey, "God’s Good For Nothing: Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart", The Horizon (1 June 1987): 8.
- ^ Mary Glowrey, “God’s Good For Nothing: The Autobiography of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart – Dr. Mary Glowrey,” The Horizon (1 October 1987): 8.
- ^ a b c Mary Glowrey, “God’s Good For Nothing: The Autobiography of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart – Dr. Mary Glowrey,” The Horizon (1 January 1988): 4.
- ^ a b c Mary Glowrey, “God’s Good For Nothing: The Autobiography of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart – Dr. Mary Glowrey,” The Horizon (1 February 1988): 7.
- ^ Florence Swamikannu, A Nun Revolutionizes: Biographical Sketch of Mary Glowrey M.D. (Somajiguda-Hyberdad, India: Provincialite Congregation of JMJ, 1972), 77. Cf. Conellan, “Pioneer Medical Missionaries,” 10.
- ^ Gervase McKinna, “Doctor-Sister Mary Glowrey: An Impossible Mission?” Melbourne University Mosaic: People and Places (Melbourne: The History Department, The University of Melbourne, 1998): 101. Cf. Ursula Clinton, Australian Medical Nun in India: Mary Glowrey M.D. (Melbourne: Advocate Press, 1967), 11.
- ^ Ibid. Cf. McKinna, “Doctor-Sister Mary Glowrey,” 100.
- ^ Glowrey, “God’s Good For Nothing,” (1 January 1988): 4-5. Cf. Mary Ryan M.A., Dr. Agnes McLaren (1837-1913) (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1915).
- ^ Mary Glowrey, God’s Good For Nothing: The Autobiography of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart – Dr. Mary Glowrey in The Horizon (1 March 1988): 8.
- ^ History in Catholic Health Association of India: Committed to Bring Health to All (2016): http://chai-india.org/?page_id=45, accessed 28 June 2017. Cf. McKinna, Doctor-Sister Mary Glowrey, 106.
- ^ Achievements in Catholic Health Association of India: Committed to Bring Health to All (2016): http://chai-india.org/?page_id=6079, accessed 28 June 2017.
- ^ McKinna, Doctor-Sister Mary Glowrey 109.
- ^ "CHAI hosts the 2019 Mary Glowrey - Liliane Brekelmans Disability Award". CHAI. 12 December 2019.
- ^ Franklin, Irene (2022). "Autobiography of Dr Sr Mary Glowrey 'God's Good for Nothing'" (PDF). Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society. 43: 201–2. Retrieved 3 Jan 2022.
External links
- Mary Glowrey Museum
- Glowrey, Mary at The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- v
- t
- e
Stages of canonization: Servant of God → Venerable → Blessed → Saint
- Gabriel
- Michael in the Catholic Church
- Raphael
- Anatolius
- Anthony of Kiev
- Athanasius the Confessor
- Chariton the Confessor
- Dominic
- Edward the Confessor
- Francis of Assisi
- Francis Borgia
- Homobonus
- Lazarus Zographos
- Louis Bertrand
- Maximus the Confessor
- Michael of Synnada
- Paphnutius the Confessor
- Paul I of Constantinople
- Peter Claver
- Salonius
- Sergius of Radonezh
- Theophanes the Confessor
- Pio of Pietrelcina
- Gregory the Great
- Ambrose
- Augustine of Hippo
- Jerome
- John Chrysostom
- Basil of Caesarea
- Gregory of Nazianzus
- Athanasius of Alexandria
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Cyril of Jerusalem
- John of Damascus
- Bede the Venerable
- Ephrem the Syrian
- Thomas Aquinas
- Bonaventure
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Isidore of Seville
- Peter Chrysologus
- Leo the Great
- Peter Damian
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Hilary of Poitiers
- Alphonsus Liguori
- Francis de Sales
- Peter Canisius
- John of the Cross
- Robert Bellarmine
- Albertus Magnus
- Anthony of Padua
- Lawrence of Brindisi
- Teresa of Ávila
- Catherine of Siena
- Thérèse of Lisieux
- John of Ávila
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Gregory of Narek
- Irenaeus
Fathers
- Alexander of Alexandria
- Alexander of Jerusalem
- Ambrose of Milan
- Anatolius
- Athanasius of Alexandria
- Augustine of Hippo
- Caesarius of Arles
- Caius
- Cappadocian Fathers
- Clement of Alexandria
- Clement of Rome
- Cyprian of Carthage
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Cyril of Jerusalem
- Damasus I
- Desert Fathers
- Desert Mothers
- Dionysius of Alexandria
- Dionysius of Corinth
- Dionysius
- Ephrem the Syrian
- Epiphanius of Salamis
- Fulgentius of Ruspe
- Gregory the Great
- Gregory of Nazianzus
- Gregory of Nyssa
- Hilary of Poitiers
- Hippolytus of Rome
- Ignatius of Antioch
- Irenaeus of Lyons
- Isidore of Seville
- Jerome of Stridonium
- John Chrysostom
- John of Damascus
- Maximus the Confessor
- Melito of Sardis
- Quadratus of Athens
- Papias of Hierapolis
- Peter Chrysologus
- Polycarp of Smyrna
- Theophilus of Antioch
- Victorinus of Pettau
- Vincent of Lérins
- Zephyrinus
- Abda and Abdisho
- Boris and Gleb
- Charles de Foucauld
- Canadian Martyrs
- Carthusian Martyrs
- Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala
- Christina of Persia
- Devasahayam Pillai
- Dismas the Good Thief
- Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
- Four Crowned Martyrs
- Gerard of Csanád
- Great Martyr
- The Holy Innocents
- Irish Martyrs
- John Fisher
- Korean Martyrs
- Lorenzo Ruiz
- Martyrs of Lübeck
- Luigi Versiglia
- Martyrology
- Martyrs of Albania
- Martyrs of Algeria
- Martyrs of Cajonos
- Martyrs of Drina
- Martyrs of China
- Martyrs of Gorkum
- Martyrs of Japan
- 21 Martyrs of Libya
- Martyrs of La Rioja
- Martyrs of Laos
- Martyrs of Natal
- Martyrs of Otranto
- Martyrs of Prague
- Martyrs of Sandomierz
- Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
- Martyrs of Zenta
- Maximilian Kolbe
- Óscar Romero
- Pedro Calungsod
- Perpetua and Felicity
- Peter Chanel
- Pietro Parenzo
- Philomena
- Saints of the Cristero War
- Stephen
- Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
- Titus Brandsma
- 17 Thomasian Martyrs
- Thomas Becket
- Thomas More
- Three Martyrs of Chimbote
- Ulma Family
- Uganda Martyrs
- Vietnamese Martyrs
- Valentine of Rome
- Victor and Corona
- Zanitas and Lazarus of Persia
- Adeodatus I
- Adeodatus II
- Adrian III
- Agapetus I
- Agatho
- Alexander I
- Anacletus
- Anastasius I
- Anicetus
- Anterus
- Benedict II
- Boniface I
- Boniface IV
- Caius
- Callixtus I
- Celestine I
- Celestine V
- Clement I
- Cornelius
- Damasus I
- Dionysius
- Eleuterus
- Eugene I
- Eusebius
- Eutychian
- Evaristus
- Fabian
- Felix I
- Felix III
- Felix IV
- Gelasius I
- Gregory I
- Gregory II
- Gregory III
- Gregory VII
- Hilarius
- Hormisdas
- Hyginus
- Innocent I
- John I
- John XXIII
- John Paul II
- Julius I
- Leo I
- Leo II
- Leo III
- Leo IV
- Leo IX
- Linus
- Lucius I
- Marcellinus
- Marcellus I
- Mark
- Martin I
- Miltiades
- Nicholas I
- Paschal I
- Paul I
- Paul VI
- Peter
- Pius I
- Pius V
- Pius X
- Pontian
- Sergius I
- Silverius
- Simplicius
- Siricius
- Sixtus I
- Sixtus II
- Sixtus III
- Soter
- Stephen I
- Stephen IV
- Sylvester I
- Symmachus
- Telesphorus
- Urban I
- Victor I
- Vitalian
- Zachary
- Zephyrinus
- Zosimus
- Agabus
- Amos
- Anna
- Baruch ben Neriah
- David
- Elijah
- Ezekiel
- Habakkuk
- Haggai
- Hosea
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Job
- Joel
- John the Baptist
- Jonah
- Judas Barsabbas
- Malachi
- Melchizedek
- Micah
- Moses
- Nahum
- Obadiah
- Samuel
- Seven Maccabees and their mother
- Simeon
- Zechariah (prophet)
- Zechariah (NT)
- Zephaniah
- Agatha of Sicily
- Agnes of Rome
- Angela of the Cross
- Æthelthryth
- Bernadette Soubirous
- Catherine of Bologna
- Brigid of Kildare
- Catherine Labouré
- Catherine of Siena
- Cecilia
- Clare of Assisi
- Eulalia of Mérida
- Euphemia
- Faustina Kowalska
- Faustina and Liberata of Como
- Genevieve
- Hiltrude of Liessies
- Joan of Arc
- Kateri Tekakwitha
- Lucy of Syracuse
- Maria Goretti
- María de las Maravillas de Jesús
- Narcisa de Jesús
- Patricia of Naples
- Rosalia
- Rose of Lima
- Teresa of the Andes
- Teresa of Calcutta
- Trasilla and Emiliana
- Ubaldesca Taccini
- Josephine Bakhita
Catholic Church portal
Saints portal