Mary Joseph Rogers  Mary Joseph Rogers (October 27, 1882 – October 9, 1955) was the founder of the Maryknoll Sisters, the first congregation of Catholic women to organize a global mission in the United States. Rogers attended Smith College and was inspired in 1904 by graduating Protestant students preparing to leave for missionary work in China. After her graduation, she returned to the school and founded a mission club for Catholic students in 1905. While organizing the club, she met Father James A. Walsh, director of Boston’s Office for the Propagation of the Faith, later founder of Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers, through whom she was inspired to establish a mission congregation for women. Rogers moved to Boston in 1908 to teach at public schools and attend the Boston Normal School. The Maryknoll Sisters were founded in 1912. By 1955, the Maryknoll Sisters had over 1000 sisters working in some twenty countries. Mother Mary Joseph Rogers was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2013. Mary Joseph Rogers was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Rogers was one of eight children. she was the first girl born to her parents Abraham T. Rogers and Mary Josephine Plummer. Her grandfather Patrick Henry, emigrated from Ireland to Canada before crossing the border into the United States were he settled in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time Henry made the move to the United States, Irish immigrants were a focus of public persecution. The Rogers family practiced their faith discreetly, as to not draw unwanted attention from anyone. They evaded a lot of persecution from traditional protestant Americans by keeping their religious practices to a minimum outside the home. Rogers and her siblings attended Mass, Sunday school, and received the Eucharist weekly. They did these out of duty to their religion, but most of the Catholic principles that are taught and implemented by constant unrestricted immersion in church life came from time at home. Henry also chose to send his children and grandchildren including Rogers into public schools. In 1901 she graduated top of a Roxbury protestant public high school class, and spoke as the valedictorian. Rogers went on to complete her undergraduate in 1905 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachussetes. Her degree was in zoology. While at Smith College Rogers found herself drawn to volunteerism and service of the student body. In June of Rogers junior year she felt so strongly moved by the mission- sending of five Protestant fellow classmates she decided she wanted to reconnect with the church. It would not be until a few years later that Rogers would come to understand how she would connect back with the church life.