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 79 nationalities spread over 74 countries on five continents.
Maria Luise Merkert was a German Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth. Merkert worked to help those in need including the poor and ill and tended to them with her older sister until her sudden death and the death of her other companions - this left Merkert alone to found and maintain her order as its first Superior General from 1859 until her death.
Jeanne-Germaine Castang – in religious Marie-Céline of the Presentation – was a French Roman Catholic nun from the Poor Clares. Her childhood was marked with lameness and she suffered a noticeable limp for the remainder of her life after contracting the disease in 1882 and an operation for pain relief in 1891. Her desire for the religious life began in her childhood and after being turned from the Sisters of Saint Joseph she managed to be admitted into the Poor Clares where she soon became ill with tuberculosis. She was permitted to make her vows well before the usual time since she was in poor health.
Blessed Maria Pia Mastena - born Teresa Maria - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and 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 her new religious order which began to grow after World War II until her sudden death in 1951.
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.
Małgorzata Szewczyk, also known by her religious name Łucja, was a Polish religious sister and the foundress of the Daughters of the Sorrowful Mother of God – or "Seraphic Sisters"; she was also a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Her life was dedicated to the care of ill people and she even spent a long period to that end in Israel and Palestine before returning to her native Poland where she became a close collaborator of Honorat Kozminski. Her initiatives to aid the poor and those in need included tending to elder women in her apartments or in going to hospitals and in the streets to help those that needed her charitable assistance.
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.
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 Manetti, born Teresa Adelaide Cesina Manetti, was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and was the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa. She took the religious name Teresa Maria of the Cross when she became a member of the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Ana Petra Pérez Florido, also known as Petra of Saint Joseph, was a Spanish Catholic nun. She established the Congregation of the Mothers of the Abandoned to care for the abandoned as well as the elderly and infirm.
Maria Grazia Tarallo was an Italian Roman Catholic nun. She was a member of the congregation known as the Crucified Sisters Adorers of the Holy Eucharist. Tarallo was given the new name of "Maria of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" upon the occasion of her solemn profession. She was well known for her charitable nature as well as her strong devotion to the Eucharist.
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.
Gertrude Prosperi was an Italian Benedictine. Prosperi assumed the religious name Maria Luisa Angelica and finally served as the abbess of her convent for an extended period of time until her death.
Margaretha Flesch, also known by her religious name Maria Rosa Flesch, was a German Roman Catholic religious sister who established the Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels. Flesch was their first Mother Superior.
Elisabetta Vendramini was an Italian Franciscan tertiary who established the Elizabethan Sisters in 1830 in Padua. Her beatification was celebrated on 4 November 1990.
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 Roman Catholic professed religious 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.
Mariano da Roccacasale - born Domenico di Nicolantonio - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. He was of peasant stock and entered the order in his twenties as a professed religious rather than as an ordained priest. He was an influence in the decision of Giuseppe Oddi joining the Franciscans after their 1863 encounter.
Maria Clara of the Child Jesus — born Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was a Portuguese Roman Catholic professed religious who established the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. She led the congregation as its superior.
Elisabetta Maria Satellico – in religious Maria Crocifissa – was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Poor Clares who served as her convent's abbess.
