MEDICAL MISSION SISTERS

The Medical Mission Sisters (MMS) was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1925 as the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, the first group of religious women dedicated exclusively to the professional medical care of the sick in mission countries.

Early in the 20th century, missionary bishops realized the need for organized, dedicated, and professionally trained personnel to take care of the health of their people, particularly mothers and infants. Women physicians were needed since, in the medically less developed areas of the world, tradition frequently prevented women patients from having recourse to male doctors. Moreover, women doctors who were also religious would ensure dedication to the work and continuity of care.

With this end in view, Anna dengel, an experienced lay missionary doctor, founded the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries. Because canon law then prohibited religious with public vows from the practice of medicine, the society was canonically erected as a pious union. In 1936 the Holy See, in the instruction Constans ac Sedula, approved the study and practice of medicine for missionary sisters with public vows. Subsequently, the Medical Mission Sisters became a religious congregation with simple vows. In 1959, John XXIII granted the Decretum Laudis; the congregation was erected as a society of pontifical rank.

Since the establishment in 1927 of the society's first hospital in Rawalpindi, North India (now Pakistan), the apostolate has been expanded to include hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The generalate is in London, England. The North American headquarters is in Philadelphia, PA.

[m. g. demers/eds.]