Mary Johnson is a writer and director of A Room of Her Own Foundation. She worked and served with the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa, for twenty years before leaving the order. She is now a writer and a public speaker and a supporter of women's rights in the arts. She received her bachelor's degree in English from Lamar University [1] and her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. [2]
Johnson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1958. [3] The family moved to Beaumont, Texas when Johnson was 12. By this time, she was the eldest of seven children. [4] In high school, Johnson was a member of the debate team and was voted "most likely to succeed" by her classmates.
In 1977, Johnson saw a picture of Mother Teresa on the cover of Time magazine. After reading the article she felt a call to join the Missionaries of Charity in their work on behalf of the poorest of the poor. [5] At the age of 19, Johnson moved to the South Bronx in order to join the novitiate as an aspirant. In 1980, she committed herself to a life of chastity, poverty, obedience, and service to the poorest of the poor, taking final vows in 1986. While with the order, Johnson, or Sister Donata ("Freely Given") as she elected to be called by her sisters, [1] studied theology at Regina Mundi at the Gregorian University in Rome, receiving a diploma in religious studies. While serving at the novitiate in Tor Fiscale in Rome, Johnson was assigned the confidential task of editing and revising the Constitutions, the governing documents of the Missionaries of Charity. [6] For six years, Mother appointed her to serve in overseeing the formation of sisters preparing for vows. After falling in love with a sister and then later a priest, Johnson broke her vows and left the order in 1997. [7]
In 2000, while working at a parish church and re-adjusting to life outside the order, Johnson attended a retreat for continuing education at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. While participating in a women's group at the ranch, Johnson told her group that she wanted only privacy—a "room of her own"—and financial support so that she could commit to telling the story of her work with the Sisters. [7] Also at the Ranch was Darlene Chandler Bassett. Chandler Bassett had retired early from a career with Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and arts patron Eli Broad and was seeking rest and a new direction at the ranch, one week after the death of her mother. Chandler Basset agreed to fund Johnson's graduate studies at Goddard College if Johnson would in turn help start a foundation for creative women. [8]
Since its inception in 2000, the A Room of Her Own Foundation (AROHO) has awarded six women with the biennial "Gift of Freedom Award," an award of $50,000 accompanied by creative and professional resources in support of the recipient's proposed creative project. [9] Returning to its origins, the foundation also hosts a Retreat for Women Writers at Ghost Ranch every other summer. [10] Johnson continues to serve as Creative Director of the foundation's retreats and to supervise the various publication contests and programs run by the foundation.
With the support of the foundation's growing community, Johnson finally published the story of her work with the Missionaries of Charity in her memoir, An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life (Spiegel & Grau, 2011). The book earned a place on Kirkus Review's Best Books of the Year list. [11]
Johnson teaches creative writing and Italian and continues to serve as Creative Director for A Room of Her Own Foundation Retreats. She is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She is married and lives with her husband in New Hampshire. [12]
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable work.
The Missionaries of Charity is a Catholic centralised religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. As of 2023, it consisted of 5,750 members of religious sisters. Members of the order designate their affiliation using the order's initials, "M.C.". A member of the congregation must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor." Today, the order consists of both contemplative and active branches in several countries.
Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and is a Catholic saint. Born in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire, she was raised in a devoutly Catholic family. At the age of 18, she moved to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto and later to India, where she lived most of her life and carried out her missionary work. On 4 September 2016, she was canonised by the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. The anniversary of her death, 5 September, is now observed as her feast day.
The Daughters of the Cross of Liège are religious sisters in the Catholic Church who are members of a religious congregation founded in 1833 by Marie Thérèse Haze (1782–1876). The organization's original mission is focused on caring for the needs of their society through education and nursing care.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ) are a Roman Catholic congregation of women religious which traces its origins to a group founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, around 1650 by Jean Pierre Medaille, S.J. The design of the congregation was based on the spirituality of the Society of Jesus. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet became a separate congregation of pontifical right on May 16, 1877.
Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, SC was an American Ruthenian Greek Catholic Sister of Charity. For a life of servitude, much spiritual writing and several blessings to those who invoked her after death, she was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2014. The ceremony, held in Newark, New Jersey, was the first such to take place in the United States.
Teresa of Jesus of Los Andes, OCD was a Chilean nun of the Discalced Carmelites.
The Congregation of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (ASCJ), previously known as the Missionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is an international congregation of religious women, founded in Viareggio, Italy, in 1894, by the Blessed Mother Clelia Merloni (1861–1930).
Charles Neale (1751–1823) was a leader of the Jesuit mission in America. Neale came from a prominent Catholic family of Maryland.
The Order of Our Lady of Charity is a Roman Catholic monastic order, founded in 1641 by Catholic saint, John Eudes in Caen, France.
Sister Mary Louise St. John, O.S.B., was a Benedictine nun and a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania. She was an advocate for the rights of people with physical disabilities, as well as for the gay community.
The Order of Atonement of the Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary (mfPS) is a single Roman Catholic active/contemplative religious order distinguished by three branches: the Men's Branch for priests and brothers/friars, the Women's Branch for nuns and the Lay Branch for those of all ages and professions, including the sick, dying, and those children conceived but as yet "unborn" or "pre-born".
Mary Prema Pierick, MC, is a German-Indian religious sister and the former Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta, India, the religious institute founded by the Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Mother Mary of the Incarnation Martin, M.M.M. was the Irish foundress of the Catholic religious institute of the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
Hélène Marie Philippine de Chappotin de Neuville, known as Mary of the Passion, was a French religious sister and missionary, who founded the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in British India in 1877, currently one of the largest religious institutes in the Catholic Church.
The Medical Missionaries of Mary are a religious institute of the Catholic Church dedicated to providing health care to the underdeveloped regions of the world. They follow a Benedictine spirituality, with its focus on life in community, shared prayer and hospitality.
The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, often called the White Sisters is a missionary society founded in 1869 that operates in Africa. It is closely associated with the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, or White Fathers.
Mary Ignatius Hayes, O.S.F., also known as Mother Mary Ignatius of Jesus, was an Anglican religious sister who was later received into the Catholic Church and became a Franciscan sister. Her lifetime of religious service, in the course of which she traveled widely, led to the establishment of three separate religious congregations of Franciscan sisters and the establishment of the Poor Clare nuns in the United States.
Mary Kevin Kearny, OSF, CBE was a teacher, Franciscan Sister, and missionary, who founded a new Franciscan order. Born in Arklow, Ireland on April 28, 1875, she became a Junior Assistant Mistress at 17 and taught in Essex, England. On December 2, 1902, she left to begin missionary work in Nsambya, Uganda, working as a Franciscan Sister of Saint Mary's Abbey, Mill Hill, London.
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