The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are a Roman Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women founded by Mother Mary of the Passion at Ootacamund, then British India, in 1877. The missionaries form an international religious congregation of women representing 77 nationalities spread over 74 countries on five continents.
María Bernarda Bütler, born Verena Bütler, was a Swiss religious sister. She founded the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Sinners and served in the missions in Ecuador and Colombia. Bütler worked for the care of the poor in these places until her exile from Ecuador and entrance into Colombia where she worked for the remainder of her life. The congregation moved there with her, and continued to expand during her time there until her death.
Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa – in religious Nazaria of Saint Teresa of Jesus – was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Missionaries of the Crusade. Mesa immigrated from Spain to Mexico where she joined a religious order that saw her minister in Bolivia where she remained for most of her life. She served brief stints in Spain to spread the religious order she founded after she left her own order and relocated to Argentina where she later died.
Blessed María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate, also known by her religious name Margarita María, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz. The religious made several international trips in order to serve in the missions as her order often dabbled in and undertook these trips despite a serious ulcer that transcended into stomach cancer but nevertheless she continued to promote the charism of the missions.
María del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras, also known by her religious name Carmen of Jesus, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Sallés is best known for being a strong advocate of both genders being equal and a staunch defender of the rights of women, since she made this the focus of her life from the beginning of her entrance into religious life.
Blessed Maria Pia Mastena - born Teresa Maria - was an Italian religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the founder of the Religious Sisters of the Holy Face. Mastena fostered a deep devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and tried to promote that devotion to others in her religious career as a nun. Mastena first desired the contemplative life but was denied this after she entered the convent since it was not a cloister. Instead she dedicated herself to teaching in several Italian cities after having left another convent and another religious order when she deemed contemplative life was not the life she felt God wanted for her. Her labors were dedicated instead to consolidating a new religious congregation which began to grow after World War II until Mastena's sudden death in 1951. Mastena was beatified on 13 November 2005.
María Teresalina Sánchez, FMM was a Spanish Franciscan religious sister who served as a missionary to Kashmir. She was murdered on the grounds of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Baramulla by invading tribesmen during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. She is considered the first martyr in Jammu and Kashmir.
Assunta Marchetti was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and the co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians; she worked in Brazil from 1895 until her death. She has been beatified as a Blessed Mother. Her priest brother Giuseppe is titled as Venerable on the path to sainthood.
Teresa Manganiello was an Italian who became a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. She desired to establish a new religious congregation but died before the idea could come to fruition.
Rosa Elena Cornejo Pazmiño, also known by her religious name María Francisca of the Wounds, was an Ecuadorian religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She founded the Hermanas Franciscanas Misioneras de la Inmaculada.
Maria Caterina Troiani was an Italian Roman Catholic charitable worker who assumed the name of "Maria Caterina of Saint Rose" when she became a nun. Troiani established the Franciscan Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She was a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis.
Teresa Maria of the Cross, SCST was an Italian Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa. She was previously a member of the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Armida Barelli was an Italian Roman Catholic who served in the educational field during her life and was also a professed member of the Secular Franciscan Order. Barelli was also the co-founder of the Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ. Alongside Father Agostino Gemelli the pair sought to spread the message of the Gospel through their educational facilities and through their congregation that sought also to spread the Franciscan charism.
Maria Anna Rosa Caiani was an Italian Roman Catholic nun from Florence who established the Minim Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1902. Caiani assumed the religious name of "Maria Margherita of the Sacred Heart" in 1902 after she professed into her new congregation that was devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
Maria Rosa Flesch, was a German religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She founded the Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels, whose first Mother Superior she was.
Peregrina Mogas Fontcuberta was a Spanish Roman Catholic nun in the name of "María Ana" and the founder of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd. Mogas Fontcuberta was in a Capuchin congregation before establishing her own order and was under the guidance of Josep Tous Soler.
Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa, also known by her religious name María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Mexican religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church and the founder of both the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament (1945) and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1979). She lived during the time of the Cristero War and remained out of the nation during some of it in order to avoid the anti-religious persecution of the times.
Maria Clara of the Child Jesus — born Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was a Portuguese religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church who established the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. She led the congregation as its superior.
Maria Josefa Karolina Brader, also known by her religious name Maria Caridad of the Holy Spirit, was a Swiss religious sister who founded the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate. Brader served as a member of the missions in Ecuador for a brief period of time before being transferred to Colombia where she served as a catechist and evangelizer for the remainder of her life.
Fiorina Cecchin – in religious Maria Carola – was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious in the Sisters of Saint Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo. Ill health prevented an initial entrance into the religious life when she was eighteen before she was accepted into the Cottolengo Sisters in Treviso; it was upon her religious profession that she worked as a cook for her colleagues before she was given permission to join the missions in Africa where she arrived in 1905. Cecchin became a popular figure in the missions due to her care and attentiveness towards the poor and the sick with whom she spent a great deal of time with. She was noted for her zealous activism and the manner in which she educated children in catechism.
