Significant step towards sainthood for Australian woman
National
An Australian doctor and missionary who offered medical care, compassion and dignity to vulnerable people in India last century has come a step closer to sainthood after Pope Leo XIV formally recognised her heroic virtues last week.
Dr Sr Mary Glowrey JMJ, who also founded India’s largest non-government health network, will now be known as Venerable Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey.
This significant step in her cause for canonisation makes her only the second Australian, after St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, to be accorded this honour.
The next phase, beatification, will require the approval of a miracle attributed to her intercession.
A Victorian by birth, Sr Mary travelled to India just after the end of the first World War and spent 37 years in service to marginalised women and children.
Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Peter A Comensoli said the Venerable Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey was a trailblazer.
“Her healing hands, her compassion and her bold spirit were a living sign of God’s tenderness,” he said. “May her example and intercession continue to inspire Aussies and people everywhere to live lives of service and holiness.”
Sr Mary dedicated her life to caring for marginalised women and children in India by providing medical treatment and establishing healthcare facilities, training programs and support networks, founding the Catholic Health Association of India in 1943.
She died in Bangalore in 1957. Her cause was initiated in India by the Bishop of Guntur, where she spent much of her life, and continues to be supported by the Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph, the religious society to which she belonged.
Sr Mary was also the inaugural president of what is now the Catholic Women’s League of Victoria and Wagga Wagga.
Archbishop Comensoli encouraged the faithful across Australia and beyond to keep her cause for canonisation in prayer.
“May the day come when the Church names her Saint Mary of the Sacred Heart,” he said. “May she pray for us and help us walk ever more closely with Christ.”
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