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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN
IN INDIA
Mary Glowrey, M.D.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart
Society of Jesus,
Mary, Joseph
ore won
There is something which completely captures our imagi
nation and strengthens our faith in Divine Providence in
the story of the life of Dr. Mary Glowrey, who became
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart.
As Australians we can be proud that our country has
produced a woman of genius, in whose life shines forth
those virtues of charity and self-sacrifice, which have
adorned the lives of some of the greatest saints.
Mary Glowrey, a gentle Australian girl, so corresponded
with God’s grace that she became a truly valiant woman.
whose name is held in honour and veneration in the
country of her adoption, India, and no less in her own
native Australia.
It is not too much to hope that this short account of
her life may be the means of leading others to follow
in her footsteps.
Austin Kelly, S.J.,
Former Superior of the Australian
Jesuit Mission in India.
J.lcc,;, St MaiUs Fcad,
anqalore - 560 001.
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Tletglibourtng oCands
FNDIA! What does it mean to Australia? What has it meant
over the years? Is the meaning the same now as it was,
say, fifty years ago?
Two lands, comparatively near each other in the layout of
the world and yet so different in their geography, their history,
their peoples.
These countries really have always been quite near as the
ship sailed but are nearer now that the aeroplane flies. Samoa
and Brisbane are scarcely further apart than the southern
most tip of India and North-West Cape of Western Australia.
And yet most Australians think of Samoa as a nearby island,
in their part of the world — the South Pacific — forgetting that
the Indian Ocean washes the shores of the west side of their
continent and India is on that ocean's northern shores, a near
north too.
Not so far from that southernmost tip of India, in northerly
and westerly directions from Madias, a city well known to
the world, are two lesser-known cities — Guntur and Bangalore
respectively. They will appear much larger than even Madras
in the life story that this booklet concerns.
Before we enter them, however, we must return to Australia
and look at it again, first in our own period, the 1960s, then
moving backwards to years that ran through the late nine
teenth century and the early twentieth century.
NEWLY FORGED LINKS
Australians of the present time are probably much more
aware of India than they were fifty years ago. of India and
Indians, of Asia and Asiatics in general. The Colombo Plan
and other schemes have brought many South Asiatic students
to Australia.
In the streets of Melbourne, of Perth, of Sydney, saris and
turbans are a quite frequent sight all the year round. In
holiday time, some of the students visit country homes, invited
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
guests of hosts and hostesses who try to give a little home
life to lonely joung people far from their families and at a
loose end while the universities and schools are shut unless
they go travelling round to see as much of Australia as they
can (which some do if they have enough money). And while
the educational establishments are open. Australian and Asiatic
students, including many Indians, study together, live together
as at International House, Melbourne, where University students
of many nations learn to know each other, to help each other
in work and at play.
There are many Asiatic nurses doing courses in Australian
hospitals, educationalists pursuing post-graduate studies, tech
nicians finding out how to give their respective countries modern
industries that will help their struggling economies, and among
all these there are Indians.
On the other side of the picture there are Australian students
visiting India and other south Asiatic countries in their long
vacations, seeing how these other people live, trying to help
them where they can in all ways in which they want to be
helped, fast plane travel making such exchanges much more
possible.
Famines in India have made present-day Australians aware
of the physical discomfort and tragedy stalking that heavily
populated land. The newspapers have publicized the recurring
crises, governments are moving and being moved by public
outcry to send what relief they can. to try to prevent repetitions
of the hunger problem by showing how scientific husbandry
and irrigation can cause more food to be produced. Australians
know what droughts mean. They suffer them themselves often;
they are just now recovering from a very severe drought in
which millions of stock died. Hence they realize the Indian dis
tress enough to contribute to Milk for India Appeals and Wheat
for India Funds originated and kept going by Australian men
and women who have been deeply concerned that their fellow
human beings are in such a terrible plight. They have, in
fact, though certainly on a smaller scale than now. been giving
aid in Indian famines for at least a quarter of a century.
Not only an awareness of the physical need but of the
spiritual distress has been gradually formed in Australian
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
minds by devoted Christian missionaries who have spent man.y
years and often lifetimes endeavouring, under Almighty God's
guidance, to bring hope and happiness to a huge nation.
Hitherto they were few, and only a handful of Australians
were among them, but now their example has had good results
and Australians in far greater numbers are hastening to the
aid of India’s millions.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
What did India mean to Australians fifty or sixty years ago?
They learned about it in geography and history books and
lessons, knew of its teeming cities and crowded countryside.
its jungle beasts, its hot climate, the highest mountains in the
world, but little of its history. Some Australians — not so
many travelled abroad then — called at Bombay, sailing to
Europe or returning from it. They must have been saddened
by many of the living conditions, even if they were enraptured
by the palaces and processions of the rich. But if they voiced
their opinions in Australia, they do not seem to have had
startling results.
India was. to the majority who were interested, the India
of Kipling. Its glamour shone through his poems and stories.
It was the land of "The Jungle Tales", of Kim and his Lama
and the colour of the Grand Trunk Road, the land of resplen
dent rajahs.
What did it mean to Australan Catholics then? It must be
realized that Australia was just emerging from its own
pioneering era. Many Australian Catholics had never seen
the inside of a Catholic school. There were, of course, various
convenes and boys' colleges, primary schools, too, in the cities
and big towns. But most Catholics who lived in the country.
and many in the towns too, had not had the advantage of
them. Their chief information about the mission countries
would come from priests and the Catholic press. If they did
not read Catholic newspapers and books, or attend Mass every
Sunday, which many of them, through distance, could not do
(realize that the motor age had hardly begun) their Catholic
education could not, in many cases, but be scrappy.
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
If they had studied Church History, Australian Catholics
would know that St. Thomas the Apostle first brought the
Christian Faith to India, that his body was originally interred
at Mylapore, near Madras, and that Christianity had survived
there in a sound way over the centuries. They would know
of St. Francis Xavier’s visit and conversions in India in the
Sixteenth Century, of Portuguese trade there and Portugal's
rule of Goa. on the west coast from Renaissance times to the
modern years and of the many converts the religious orders
had made there. They might, if they lived in Australian
cities, see the Catholic Goan crews of overseas ships visiting
Australian churches, or. if they travelled on such overseas
ships as those of the P. and 0. line, know of the Goanese
crews' chapels on these ships.
Those who had some knowledge of the Missions knew that
Catholic missionaries were still working in India. Some had
a definite picture of their labours if they were educated by
an Order that had missions there. Some — I was one — would
see girls from their school go to India to work as nuns in
mission schools, see nuns who had taught them leave for India
too.
The emphasis seemed to be on Christian education there then.
Were there such institutions as Catholic hospitals in India, were
there doctors and nurses there? On that point we seem to have
been ignorant. Did we even enquire?
AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES IN THE EARLY 1900s
At the Australian Universities in the earlier part of the
Twentieth Century there were no students from Asia. They
did not begin to come till well after the Second World War.
And in the first decade or so of the Century there were very
few Australian women at these universities. Women were just
beginning to break into the learned professions. They had
to battle against social opposition to a higher education for
women. As teachers they more readily won recognition. But
as lawyers and doctors, for instance, they were long frowned
on. They had to prove their capabilities.
Among the early women medical graduates of the University
of Melbourne was one Mary Glowrey. a Catholic, who, like
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
other Catholic students there, had not had the advantage of
a Catholic university college, because there was none there
till 1918.
At that time she knew no more about India than most of
the educated Australian Catholics I have mentioned. She was
soon to know much more about it than all but a few Aus
tralians, perhaps more than any of them. She was to live
in one of the least glamorous parts of it, night and day, giving
her body and soul to the hardest work in a climate the hot
test in the whole land and hotter than almost any part of
Australia, a mixture of that of the famed north-western Aus
tralian town, Marble Bar. the Central Australian deserts and
moist tropical Darwin. She was to stay there thirty-seven
years and to die not far from the district after a long and
very painful illness, for the sake of sick and poor Indians
whom she saw made in the image of Christ, whether Christian
or non-Christian, and as brothers and sisters under the Father
hood of God. She went there for the love of God and to
sanctify and save her own immortal soul. She had been called
by God to serve Him in a land very different from her own
and to give up much comfort and expectation of worldly suc
cess for His sake. Let us see who this unusual woman was
and exactly what she did.
THE EARLY YEARS OF MARY GLOWREY
Mary Glowrey was born at Birregurra, near Colac, in the
Western District of Victoria, Australia. The township, and
the bigger town near it, had been given Australian aboriginal
names by the early white settlers, but Mary Glowrey, like
most of their inhabitants, was of European descent. Her
parents were Australians but her grandparents were Irish.
Her father’s father had come to Australia from Dublin. His
mother, who had come from Cork, was a doctor’s daughter
and Mary herself thought that this family interest in medicine
might have had some influence on her own choice of profes
sion. Her mother’s parents had come, one from Limerick
and one from near it. Her mother’s father was a surveyor,
teacher and grazier. He and his wife conducted St. Mary’s
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
School, Geelong, about 1850-51 and he taught at Colac while
holding land in the vicinity.
June 23, 1887. was the date of Mary's birth. She was the
third child of the family. The eldest, a boy, had died before
her birth. The second, Lucy, who in adult years became Mrs.
Thomas Peter Connellan. and a younger sister, Eliza, were
the close companions of Mary’s early years. There were
more children later on, one of whom was to become a priest.
well known and loved in the Ballarat Diocese of Victoria,
the Reverend Father Edward Glowrey, later a Dean, who
died in 1950. Two younger brothers, Messrs. Harold and Gerard
Glowrey, are still living. There were nine children in all.
Mary owed her name to her godmother, Mrs. Nehill.
"That is a privilege for which I could never sufficiently
thank her nor Our Blessed Mother Mary,” she wrote near the
end of her life. Her heavenly Patroness certainly led her
gently and surely to the Heart of her Divine Son.
Mary was not to remember Birregurra, unless she ever
returned there in her girlhood, for when she was five months
old the family moved to another township some miles away,
Garvoc, her father's birthplace, where they stayed till she
was five years of age. The reason for this move was her
grandfather's retirement. Her father now managed his busi
nesses, a store, a hotel and several properties in the district.
One of the chief events of this period, perhaps the chief
event, was her aunt’s consecration of Mary to Our Lady. She
developed an extremely bad throat through diphtheria and one
night appeared to be dying. The aunt begged Our Lady to
pray for her cure. The morning after the consecration the
throat was normal.
Each night the Family Rosary was said and with it a prayer
for priests and doctors. Mary Glowrey, many years later.
recalling that practice, wrote. “When my brother and I were
respectively priest and doctor, I sincerely hoped that many
another mother added that 'trimming' to the Rosary."
In those days of large Australian parishes and few priests.
Garvoc had Sunday Mass only once a fortnight. Going to
Mass — the church was not very far from her home — was
8
Glowrcy Family at Ordination of Fr. Edward Glowrey, 1918.
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
one of the few memories Mary Glowrey carried away from
Garvoc.
The next move took the family right out of the Western
District, well over one hundred miles north-west, to the hot,
dry Mallee region of Victoria, a good training place for a
future hot-climate missionary. They had to go there because.
her father’s health having become poor, his doctor advised a
drier climate. They settled at Watchem, another township
with an Australian aboriginal name, said to mean wattles,
i.e., the beautiful golden-blossomed Australian trees, which
apparently flourished in the district.
During their first year in Watchem. then a very tiny, new
township, there was no school of any kind. But Mrs. Glowrey
educated her children in domestic knowledge — taught them to
cook simple meals, make jam, sauces, etc., even soap and
candles. She also taught them to sew by hand and with a
machine. They enjoyed the training. She had been a teacher.
This good mother also trained them well in religion. Mary
felt that she was very indebted to her mother for telling the
children that they must always pray for grace to do the Holy
Will of God. Led to ponder deeply on her mother’s advice.
Mary saw that sin would be overcome by doing God’s Will
and that one would always do that which pleased Him. The
petition became her constant prayer. It must have led to
the grace of her being able to obey God’s call to her difficult
lifelong vocation.
Mary Glowrey’s first contact with Indians came during her
childhood at Watchem. Those were the days when occasional
Indian hawkers travelled round the Australian countryside
selling clothes, linen and small goods to outback people far
from shops. Mr. Glowrey was very kind to the ones who
came to his district and allowed them to camp on his land.
They did most of their cooking at their own campfires but
used to make their chapaties (of unleavened bread) at his
big kitchen fire. The children used to watch their methods
of cooking entranced. Though Mary taught the Indians an
occasional word of English, it did not occur to her to ask them
to teach her Indian words. Even a smattering of an Indian
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
dialect would have been useful to her when she began her
work in India.
Her childhood continued rather uneventfully, on the whole.
in Watchem, which gradually grew larger. At first her father
engaged a Catholic lady to teach his children and the few
other Catholic children there were included in her classes.
But when a State primary school was opened in the township
the parish priest closed the tiny Catholic private school and
the rest of Mary’s primary schooldays were spent in the
State school.
She made her First Communion and was confirmed at nine
years of age. She had her first experience of serious worry
when her father met with financial disaster connected with
his Garvoc properties which nearly ruined him. It was realized
that the Glowrey girls would have to equip themselves well
for earning their living. The local teacher. Mr. Harry
Gill, later an inspector, trained them after school in certain
secondary subjects. His interest and their capabilities led to
Lucy’s becoming a pupil teacher in the Education Department
and Mary’s winning one of the new State secondary scholar
ships. She came third on the list of forty candidates in the
whole State of Victoria.
The use of the scholarships was limited to certain schools
and Mary had to leave home to attend the school selected
for her by her parents and teacher, a co-educational secular
day school. South Melbourne College, conducted by Mr. J. B.
O'Hara, M.A. (who also had made a name in Australian
Literature as a delicate lyrical poet). The school was in South
Melbourne, hundreds of miles away. Mary Glowrey was able
to board at the Good Shepherd Convent. Rosary Place, in the
same suburb, and so came for the first time under the influence
of nuns. They had no school there then.
When she matriculated, she was too young to be accepted
by the University. She repeated the Matriculation course, in
other subjects than those in which she had passed, and so
gained a very wide education. She won a University Exhibition.
a valuable cash prize, which was very welcome to the family.
11
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Si.
. EC ' E01.
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Mary Glowrcy, J I. at the time of her Matriculation.
12
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
University years
A T the University of Melbourne Mary Glowrey, following
her literary interests, began to study for her B.A. degree.
Her fathei' was anxious for her to do a medical course, though
it was an unusual one for a woman to take then. But a local
doctor, when Mary discussed the change with him, told her
that the study of medicine would deprive her of all womanly
dignity. Mary was in a quandary about changing courses.
She kept praying to the Sacred Heart to show her what to
do, for she still loved her Arts course. A new young doctor
in her home district showed her that if a young girl were not
unwomanly to begin with, "she need never become so through
the study of medicine". Mary was not yet converted but she
went on praying. It is clear she was being slowly led to her
life’s vocation.
Finally, she decided to take up Medicine though she risked
losing her Exhibition if she failed in her first year. With con
stant prayer reinforcing her brilliant talents, she mastered her
new subjects and, after a few years’ study, graduated trium
phantly as M.B., B.S. in 1910.
During her time at the University the Catholic medical
students, upset at teaching and practices contrary to the
Natural Law, approached their priests with their problems.
Archbishop Carr of Melbourne was then absent in Europe but
he published a booklet — "Infanticide” — concerning the
matters that were worrying them and and Very Reverend Dean
Phelan allowed them to make use of it. Dr. Glowrey had
written it. Reverend Father Mangan, who was then studying
at the University of Melbourne, with a group of eighty Catholic
students, founded the Newman Society for Catholic University
graduates and under-graduates and it is still doing untold good
there. From it grew the request for a Catholic University
College and Newman College was opened in 1918, with St.
Mary's Hall as its women’s hostel. St. Mary’s is now a
college in its own right — St. Mary’s College — on a different
community
site, next to Newman College.
13 326, V Main, health cell
I Block
Koramo
e8,n9a|ore-560034
India
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Mary Clowrcy in Academic Dress.
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
MARY GLOWREY’S FIRST YEARS AS A DOCTOR
Dr. Glowrey’s first medical appointment took her a little
distance away from Australia. She applied for a position as a
resident doctor at the Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand, and
was accepted. This, she wrote many years later, “caused a
little stir in New Zealand, firstly because the appointment
was given to one who was not a New Zealander and secondly
because I was the first medical woman to be granted an
appointment in New Zealand." She gained valuable experience
there for a year then returned to Melbourne, to the Victorian
Eye and Ear Hospital.
Before long World War One had broken out and many
doctors were with the armed forces. Dr. Glowrey by then
had her own successful private practice in Collins Street
east, the street then and now the Harley Street of Melbourne.
But much of her time was taken up relieving for the doctors
who were in military service. She had still certain duties at
the Eye and Ear Hospital and made it her home so that she
was on the premises at night and certain other times for
emergencies. In addition, she became Physician to Out-patients
at St. Vincent’s Hospital, the Catholic public hospital of Mel^
bourne. It was also a clinical school for medical students.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CATHOLIC
WOMEN’S SOCIAL GUILD
While Dr. Glowrey was perfecting her medical practice most
conscientiously, what little leisure she had for rest was taken
from her by the hand of God. Less than seven years after
her graduation as a medical and surgical bachelor, the Catholic
Women’s Social Guild was founded in Melbourne, in October,
1916, and she was persuaded by its founder, the Very Reverend
Fr. Lockington, S.J.. to allow herself to be nominated as its
first General President.
The Guild, the objectives of which were to be social, educa
tional and charitable, was to help, chiefly. Catholic women
and children, the priests in their parishes, and all others who
needed its aid, and to make Catholic women’s influence felt
in public affairs. It was the first large-scale organizing of
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Catholic women in Victoria, though it had. as a model, the
Catholic Women’s League, founded a little time before in Ade
laide, South Australia. The aged Archbishop of Melbourne,
Most Reverend Thomas Carr, was very anxious for it to
function and Fr. Lockington applied his great energy to draw
ing all Catholic women into it. Two very important lectures
by him in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Melbourne, preceded the
actual foundation. A Central Committee was placed at the
head of the new bodj’ and Dr. Glowrey was elected General
President.
Twelve sincere and talented women were on the chief com
mittee. There is not room to mention all here but among
them was the first Honorary Secretary, Miss Maud O'Connell,
who. several years later, founded the Company of Our Lady
of the Blessed Sacrament (familiarly known as the Grey
Sisters), which looks after families when mothers are ill either
at home or in hospital. Sister O'Connell died in 1965. She
deserves a pamphlet to herself and is sure to have one or.
more likely, a full-scale biography.
Another was Dr. Eileen Fitzgerald, who had so much to do
with the opening of the Guild's holiday home for sick and
poor children. SANTA CASA, at Queenscliff, by the sea. Dr.
Fitzgerald later became Chief Medical Officer of the Victorian
Education Department. She was a lifelong friend of Dr.
Glowrey. They kept up a regular correspondence.
There was also Miss Anna Brennan. LL.B., a pioneer Aus
tralian woman lawyer who practised in Melbourne up to the
time of her death at an advanced age in 1962 and was one
of the founders of St. Joan's Alliance, political, non-party (for
Catholic women) in Melbourne.
What energy Dr. Glowrey gave to her responsibility! She
was constantly addressing meetings, both in the metropolis
and in country centres. She wrote frequent articles on health
for the Guild's monthly paper. WOMAN’S SOCIAL WORK,
which, after her time in Melbourne, became THE HORIZON
and is still flourishing. She gave medical lectures in town
and country, presided at C.W.S.G. annual conferences and
carried on the heavy administrative duties of a rapidly-growing
organization.
16
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
One of her happiest successes must have been the spread
of the Guild to her own Ballarat Diocese, in particular, to
her own home district in the Mallee, Branches at Watchem
and the towns near it were among the earliest to be established
in the country, though she herself did not open all. Miss
O’Connell is recorded as having opened some.
Her part in the C.W.S.G. ended early in 1919 with a health
breakdown. She resigned from the Presidentship. The Guild
newspaper, regretting her illness and resignation, commented:
“Those who know most intimately the work that Dr. Glowrey
has done for the Guild feel, not only regret, but also some
thing like remorse because we know that her tireless labour
in the Guild’s interests has been in part responsible for her
temporary breakdown."
There were other reasons for this and for her resignation.
however.
While she was carrying on this strenuous social work in
addition to her medical practice, she had been studying for
a higher medical degree. She had more than an ordinary
professional reason for doing this but that was still her secret.
The degree was M.D. — Doctor of Medicine. She passed the
examination for it in 1919. The subjects were gynaecology,
obstretrics and opthalmology, so she was now very well
equipped as a woman's physician and surgeon and was a
doctor in fact as well as in courtesy title. The degree was
not conferred till December 23, 1919. A month afterwards
she left Australia again, on a longer journey.
Even then, only Dr. Mary Glowrey's family and a few very
close friends knew that she had gone, where she had gone
and why. To let you into the secret, allow her to take you
back five years or so.
In her brief autobiography, written in her last illness at the
request of her Superiors, Dr. Glowrey made these remarks:
"It was during this busy period” (i.e., when the war was
giving her so much extra medical work, but, note, a whole
year before she became the first C.W.S.G. President) "that
God deigned to give me my religious vocation. On October
24. 1915, I attended Holy Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
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The day was being celebrated as 'Hospital Sunday’. The
occasional sermon was preached by Very Rev. W. J. Lock
ington. S.J.. who took for his text the words, 'Honour the
physician for the need thou hast of him'. The eulogies heaped
on members of the medical profession only served to humble
me. From the Cathedral I went to my rooms in Collins Street.
On the hall table there was a small pamphlet addressed to
me by the Rev. Donal A. Reidy of Ballarat, who had formerly
been a curate in Watchem.
''It was not until 11 p.m. that I returned to the Eye and
Ear Hospital. Out of mere curiosity I began to read the
pamphlet, 'Dr. Agnes McLaren,' by Mary Ryan. M.A. (B226.
E.C.T.S., 1915). Dr. McLaren was one of the pioneer medical
women of England. At the age of sixty-one she became a
Catholic. At the age of seventy-two she went to India to
establish a Catholic Hospital for the care of Indian women.
''From association with the Protestant medical missionaries
Dr. McLaren knew that, as a general rule, Indian women
would on no account submit to examination by a medical
man. Medical women were exceedingly few. Dr. McLaren
desired to organize a method of providing medical relief for
the suffering women of India. She established a hospital in
Rawalpindi and entrusted it to the care of a medical woman
and some lay-helpers.
"Monsignor Wagner. Prefect Apostolic of Kashmir, was a
warm supporter of her efforts.”
Dr. Glowrey tells how. through reading the pamphlet, she
learnt that Dr. McLaren tried to find a religious order which
would admit qualified medical women or allow suitable mem
bers to qualify and practise in the missionary hospitals. Her
ideas were, however, regarded by many as an audacious
:■ novelty or an unpractical dream, by others as good but very
( difficult to follow out.
Anyhow, the approval of the Holy See was necessary for
such a change in mission work and Rome would have to look
into the matter very carefully. This persistent woman — Dr.
Agnes McLaren — made five journeys to Rome to put her
theories before the proper authorities. The Bishops of India
backed her efforts.
18
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Dr. Glowrey came to the conclusion that God wanted her
herself in India. She finished reading the pamphlet on her
knees.
She began to look about for a Spiritual Director to advise
her. She did not know to what part of India she should go.
In the middle of the next year. 1916, her friend Fr. Reidy
sent her a copy of an American magazine, the Jesuits’
AMERICA, which contained a letter from Most Rev. Dr. Aelen,
Archbishop of Madras, to an American doctor, begging the
Medical Mission Board of New York to educate medical women
for the missions, for they were badly needed in India. Dr.
Glowrey showed this to Fr. Lockington. S.J., who forthwith
made enquiries of Archbishop Aelen. The Archbishop cabled
one word — "Come”.
A letter from him soon followed telling of the work of the
Sisters of the Society of Jesus. Mary and Joseph, whom he
had brought to India from Holland in order to give nursing
help to Indian women and to teach the children in schools.
Dr. Glowrey was anxious to go at once, but. on account of
the war. she could not. It was then that she set out to gain
the M.D. degree so that her mission work would be more
efficient. Her acquaintance with Fr. Lockington led to het
taking part in the establishment of the Catholic Women's Social
Guild in Melbourne during her years of waiting.
Perhaps the greatest joy she had during her last years in
Australia was the ordination of her brother Edward to the
priesthood in May, 1918. He spent his life in the Ballarat
Diocese holding some important administrative posts and died
prematurely as Dean Glowrey in December, 1950.
Her parents were, of course, among the few who knew of
the great change of purpose coming over Dr. Glowrey's life;
two of the first to know. She wrote to them in far-away
Watchem explaining her plans.
”1 pointed out.” she writes, "that I owed my vocation entirely
to them — to my Mother who taught us we must pray to do
the Will of God. and to my Father, who perseveringly asked
me to study medicine. Then I received a beautiful letter from
each of them in turn. When I did not go immediately my
19
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Father asked me did I change my mind. It was at this time
that I was very busy.”
Just before leaving Australia, Dr. Glowrey made a Retreat
at the Convent of Mercy. Goulburn. New South Wales. Fr.
Lockington gave the Retreat and told the nuns about her
intentions.
Her Spiritual Director. Fr. Lockington, thought that she
should, perhaps, go to India first as a lay medical missionary
He corresponded with fellow Jesuits in India trying to find
out what was best and they sided with him. But Mary Glowrey
said, after a lay position in the Missions had been offered
to her. that it was not her wish to take a paid post.
She left Melbourne by ship, the “Orsova”, for India on Janu
ary 21. 1920. She learnt later that this day was the first
Wednesday of a Novena made to St. Joseph for nine succes
sive Wednesdays before his Feast, March 19, by the Sisters
of the Society of Jesus. Mary and Joseph in India each year.
Among their intentions was medical help for their missions.
Dr. Glowrey reached Madras on February 11, the Feast of
Our Lady of Lourdes. There, staying with the Presentation
Nuns, she met Archbishop Aelen of Madras, who had been so
anxious for her to join his Dutch Missionaries, and who wel
comed her in no uncertain way.
The following day she set out by train for Guntur, where
the Dutch nuns were working. From now on. almost to the
end of her story. Guntur becomes The Place.
DR. GLOWREY’S ARRIVAL AT GUNTUR
At the Guntur Convent she was received with great joy and
affection and soon shown around the nuns' buildings and the
town, including the Public Hospital, where the nuns formed
the nursing staff. But first they had taken her to their church.
There she noticed a fine statue of the Sacred Heart with arms
outstretched. She was soon to take the name Sister Mary of
the Sacred Heart, so it always had a special significance for
her.
At the end of this first day in Guntur Mary Glowrey joined
the Congregation.
20
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
WHAT WAS THIS ORDER DR. GLOWREY
HAD JOINED?
Mrs. Lucy Connellan, Dr. Glowrey’s sister, tells the history
of the Society of Jesus, Mary, Joseph briefly in a short biog
raphy she wrote some years ago.
The Society was established in Holland in 1822, at a time
when religious orders were banned there. So, for their first
twenty years, the Sisters had to wear secular dress. “Their
purpose was to impart Catholic education to girls of all grades
of society, to care for the sick and the aged, and to engage
in other charitable works as required." The Mother House
was at “Marienburg”, Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, but
is now at Vught, in the same country. Since the General
Chapter of 1962, the Society has been divided into provinces
and regions.
In 1898 the Sisters began their first mission work in Asiatic
regions — in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). They
were hampered there at first but later established schools
and hospitals in the Celebes. Their chief work was the care
of the poor. The first hospital developed from a dispensary
in 1910.
The Indian foundations of the Order date from 1904. Madras
then had an Irish Archbishop. Most Rev. Dr. Colgan. His
Coadjutor was the same Archbishop Aelen who later invited
Dr. Glowery to come as a medical missionary. Being a Dutch
man. he was well acquainted with the Society of Jesus, Mary
and Joseph, which he brought to Archbishop Colgan’s notice
as a suitable instrument for the missionary work needed in
the outskirts of the Diocese. The Dutch Sisters were soon
installed in Guntur, far inland from Madras, their convent a
small Indian house.
First they opened a tiny orphanage, an institution badly
needed, which they hoped to expand as quickly as possible.
Medical help was badly needed for the orphans and the district
people, so they opened a small dispensary on the little veranda
of the convent.
Once the Indian people began to come to this in numbers
the nuns realized the terrible plight the Indian women were
in. They were entirely bereft of skilled medical help, for
21
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
on no account would a respectable Indian woman submit to
examination by a man, let alone accepting his services at
the time of child-birth. The infant mortality rate was apalling. Most babies died before they were three months old.
chiefly in the first week of their lives, and there were many
still births. Even fifty years after this time, with more
hospitals functioning in the land, 500 Indian women were dying
in child-birth every day.
The nuns realized that they must help these women through
out their pregnancy and at their children’s births. As nuns
in those times did not practise midwifery they engaged an
educated Catholic lay midwife, who attended the women in
their homes or huts, and the nuns later visited and helped
I them and their babies.
The nuns, at the Archbishop's request, trained some young
Indian women to become members of a diocesan Congregation.
They were sent to a hospital to train as midwives. Later
on, they were canonicallj' admitted to the Society of J.M.J.
By 1911 Dr. Aelen had succeeded his Archbishop in the See
of Madras and he obtained special permission from the Vatican
for the Dutch Sisters who were already trained nurses to train
as midwives for their urgent missionary work. They were
probably among the first Catholic nuns to do this work.
In 1914 the Sisters were selected by a prominent Brahmin
surgeon of the city to take charge of the nursing in the Guntur
Public Hospital. They also visited the sick in their homes.
When Dr. Glowrey arrived in Guntur in 1920 the Society
of J.M.J. had no hospital of its own there but the nun nurses'
experience of the difficulties surrounding many Indian mothers
made them realize that they must open a hospital and bring
the women there for their babies' births. But they needed a
woman doctor to take charge of it and so they were most
grateful when God answered their prayers by sending Dr.
Glowery.
Later on. when their own hospital was established, the nuns
gave up nursing in the Public Hospital. Afterwards they
opened hospitals in Bangalore and other centres in the Arch
diocese of Madras and nearby dioceses. They also established
schools, for they had many trained teachers among them.
22
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
The present Mother-General of the Society, Mother Marie
de Montfort, has contributed the following summary of its
history and objectives.
A FEW POINTS ABOUT THE SOCIETY
In the world’s community of men the Society of J.M.J. tries
to fulfil the assignment of the Church in apostolic service.
Founded by Rev. Father Mathias Wolff in 1822 in the time
of the emancipation of the Church in Holland, it had as its
foremost aim the intellectual uplift and development of women.
That is why it dedicated itself to the education of girls, pro
viding for general and domestic science education at all levels.
As far as education was concerned the Society opened a
training college in the early decades of the twentieth century
to provide trained staff for schools.
By the side of its pioneering in education, the Society saw
the great need for nursing the sick and caring for the lonely
aged and the imbecile. H'ence it saw the necessity for train
ing nurses and doctors in Holland and in the Missions to staff
these hospitals. Help was asked and given for the care of
the physically and mentally handicapped, for the needy aged
living all alone, for assistance of all kinds in families, especially
in the poorer quarters of the towns in Holland. It is the
principle of the Society to render service where the need is
the greatest and would remain unrelieved but for the service
of religious.
This apostolic spirit urged the Society to go beyond the
bounds of its home country and found schools and hospitals
and institutions for social service in other lands irrespective
of race, caste and creed. Work in the villages for the poor
is a special feature of its service, also catechetical instruction
as a help to the priests in the missions. The mission of Indo
nesia was started in Tomohon in 1898 and it now numbers
12 houses; India has now 10 houses: the first was opened in
1904 in Guntur: the first Australian Convent was founded in
Narrabundah, Canberra, in 1960, and by 1966 there were three
houses.
The Society fosters indigenous vocations in apostolicallyminded girls who wish to dedicate their lives to God and thus
23
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
share in the Society's work for the extension of the Kingdom
of God. The strength for this universal love for the world
and the Church is to be found in the undivided union with
Christ, with Whom the Society wishes to glorify the Father
by constructive work for His Kingdom.
At present the Society has in Holland 1559 members, Indo
nesia 220. India 280, Australia 25. Africa 22, Rome 10, making
a total of 2116 members.
DR. GLOWREY'S FIRST YEARS AS A RELIGIOUS
Dr. Glowrey proceeded with her religious training in much
the same way as all nuns do. However, some of the circum
stances were unusual.
There was no novitiate of the Order in India and she would
have had to do her novitiate in Holland had not Archbishop
Aelen obtained special permission from Rome for her to do
it in Guntur, as her medical skill was so badly needed there.
So she was the only postulant and had the privilege of living
with the professed nuns.
Before she was received into the Order, on November 28.
1920, Archbishop Aelen had also obtained Vatican permission
for her "to do all medical work in bonum animarum" and Pope
Pius XI bestowed a special blessing on her medical mission
work. This permission was a great innovation, for nuns up
to this time had not been allowed to practise as doctors. So
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, as Dr. Glowrey had now
become, was the first nun-doctor missionary. It was not till
1936 that the general ban on religious doing medical work was
lifted by Rome, though a few other special permissions were
granted in the meantime.
She made her Temporary Profession in 1922. When she came
out of the novitiate, one of her first contacts with the world
was to receive a magazine from the Women’s Medical Service
of Northern India full of discussions on Dr. Marie Stopes and
her birth-control propaganda.
"Only one pen.” Sister Mary records, "was wielded against
her and that was from the Principal of Lady Harding Medical
College. This college had been established principally by
24
paueiiCS'.’
ofle‘ Tiau '*cu* “McCvific' 'iJIuncTcnV' Hi' le^guT^ol' <T
scientific woman must be exact and a doctor cannot allow any
room for misunderstanding her directions and questions. She
was soon to have hundreds and thousands of Telegu-speaking
people to deal with.
Here is a picture of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey as she began her medical work in earnest after her pro
fession as a nun. She had one small room with a small veranda
in front as dispensary. The veranda was also the patients
waiting room.
"Inside the room," she herself writes, "was a table with
three bottles containing a few drugs, namely. Sodium Bicar
bonate, Potassium Zibrate and Epsom Salts. There was a tiny
cupboard made of boxes which contained a few instruments.
all that the Sisters possessed.”
25
Ko'amc.ng.Tla
ean9aiore-560034
India
As the trained nurses of the Convent were busy in the Public
Hospital. Dr. Glowrey had to carry on with an untrained staff.
They did admirable work, she said, and God blessed the dis
pensary "in a wondrous way”. Later on, a true dispensary
and an outpatient department were built and she had to deal
with large numbers of patients. This is her account of the
developments:
“There was so much work to be done and so many patients.
I could work day and night without stopping. An additional
piece of land was later acquired and a small hospital was
erected in 1921. This was used as an outpatient department
first, and later we used one of the rooms to admit a patient.
Two beds were put in it. In 1925 the foundation-stone of our
St. Joseph's Hospital, Guntur, was laid and the inpatient
department was built and our first hospital inpatient was admit
ted for treatment.”
26
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Soon a few private patients were admitted to the original
outpatient department, but still there could be no trained
nurses on the staff. From then on the hospital continued to
be in a transitional stage until 1931, at the time when Rev.
Mother Jacquelini became Superior of the Mission.
The nuns began training compounders (dispensers) in 1925.
By 1929 the Surgeon-General of the Indian Government had
recognized St. Joseph's Hospital as a training school for women
dispensers. Sister Mary (Dr. Glowrey) was their tutor. The
hospital was also training nurses, including midwives. Sister
Mary lectured to them. .She was also teaching science in the
nuns’ high school, as no other qualified science teacher was
available. The Surgeon-General also appointed her medical
inspector of St. Joseph's High School and the Director of In
dustrial Schools made her auditor to St. Joseph’s Industrial
School. At the schools she apparently also lectured in Physi
ology, Health and Hygiene, and gave lessons in First Aid and
Home Nursing. She was also Medical Officer in charge of
Health Week.
Sitter Mary and some out-patients.
27
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
At St. Joseph's Hospital, of which she was in charge all
this strenuous time; the number of outpatients, by 1929, ex
ceeded 40,000 annually. The daily number of inpatients was
forty, limited to this by lack of accommodation. At the same
period a report of a Melbourne hospital showed that for an
equivalent amount of hospital work there were five resident
and forty visiting doctors.
Sister Mary wrote at that time:
"This does not mean that I do the work of forty-five; far
from it. But it does mean that if forty-five medical women
were to offer their services we could find work in plenty
for all.”
A modest statement on her part. But just think of what
she was doing all those years — one doctor for all those
patients, all the lecturing and teaching she had to undertake.
and all her religious duties as a nun to be performed. And,
no annual vacation to relieve the strain.
She not only worked in the hospital and schools, but often
visited outlying villages if an urgent call came for her from
a very sick patient. Conditions in these villages were often
difficult. She would have to stoop low to get in to her patient
in a small straw hut with only an earthen floor. Barber
midwives in such villages often caused women in childbirth
to die of tetanus and other diseases by using cow dung to stop
bleeding.
Frequently many mothers who had lost as many as ten
babies came to Sister Dr. Mary in Guntur. Her reputation
filled all the district and beyond it as she saved their babies
for them. Even rajahs put their wives under her care.
Not only was she a good doctor but, as Mother Jacquelini
of her Order describes her, a loving mother to her patients.
“She treated everyone with the same care. She won the
hearts and confidence of all. Incurable patients found a special
place in the heart of Sister Mary. She did all in her power to
give them some relief. Sister Mary was indeed a living
example of Christian charity to all those who came in contact
with her. She forgot herself entirely and sacrificed herself
whole-heartedly in the service of others.”
28
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Most of her patients were not Christians and many conver
sions resulted from her example, with God's grace. Some were
death-bed Christians, but many were the women she had
brought back to health and their families. Often, as the result
i of the J.M.J. nun nurses’ and her kind visits to the outlying
villages, whole villages became Christian.
After ten or more years of battling as the only doctor for
so many patients. Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart received
most welcome help from Heaven, for the all-understanding
God had given another medical missionary vocation to Aus
tralia and India.
< In 1932, Dr. Ethel Pitt, also a graduate of the University of
'Melbourne, who had been practising some years in various
(parts of Australia, including Ballarat, and who desired to
become a medical missionary, heard of Guntur when she asked
for help from the editor of THE AUSTRALIAN MESSENGER
■ OF THE SACRED HEART. Dr. Pitt joined the Order as soon as
■ she could.
She also laid aside a brilliant future to give her life to the
Missions. She came of a Melbourne family, several members
of which have won distinction in Australia.
Dr. Pitt did her novitiate at Tomohon in Celebes. She became
Sister Veronica of the Holy Face. Like Dr. Glowrey, Dr. Pitt
had to go apart from her medical work for a while during
her spiritual training.
However, by 1934, we find evidence of her assisting Dr. Glow■ rey (Sister Mary) in St. Joseph’s Hospital. They had to cope
not only with maternity cases and the usual diseases but an
( epidemic of smallpox swept over the area and took 100 to
200 lives. Indians did not become immune through vaccination
or a previous attack. The two nun doctors learned very much
that no medical book gave about smallpox in its many varied
forms and the contacts and treatment.
Like Dr. Glowrey. Dr. Pitt had to wrestle with the intricacies
of the Telegu language in order to make proper contact with
her patients. Like her she quickly mastered them.
However, the respite of an assistant doctor was not to be
for long. Sister Veronica soon had to travel on elsewhere in
the service of Almighty God.
29
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
In 1936 Sister Mary (Glowrey) wrote home to her family
telling of her and other nuns' visit to Bangalore, some distance
off, in search of a suitable site for a convent. It was a beau
tifully-situated city, with a climate like that of Ballarat,
Australia, for it was 3000 feet above sea level, and so well
above the enervating tropical heat of the Southern Indian plains.
The Convent was finally established there that year. Then
the nuns began a hospital of which Sister Veronica (Pitt) was
soon put in charge. She was still there in 1966, having carried
on for many years in the same heroic way as Sister Mary at
Guntur.
In 1936 the Vatican made a general rule that nuns might
practise medicine, so Sister Veronica had her way cleared
for Bangalore. Sister Mary, of course, had been exempt from
the old ban since 1922.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart was now left alone again
to carry on the huge medical responsibility for St. Joseph's
Hospital, Guntur. She had little leisure for writing letters or
reading. She tried to scribble short letters home, for example.
in the few minutes while a patient was mounting the examining
table, and she read while she walked from convent to hospital
and back, trying to keep up with the latest medical books.
Nevertheless she managed to keep in frequent touch with her
family, especially her parents, with whom in their Golden
Wedding celebrations she rejoiced and whom she consoled in
their old age and final illnesses.
THE WAR AND POST-WAR YEARS
The Second World War before long was raging. It brought
much trouble to the nuns at Guntur, especially after Holland
was occupied by the Germans. Financial help from there
was interfered with and Dutch vocations for the Missions like
wise were thwarted. The Dutch Sisters in India were very
worried about their families’ safety.
Sister Mary’s letters home became very short and irregular
because of the many war restrictions. Her father died during
this period (February. 1942). It must have been a great sorrow
to her to be so far aw’ay from him in his last days. Her
30
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
young niece, Mary Conncllan of Narwie, Balranald. New South
Wales, Australia, also died in December, 1941.
The sadness of the partings was over by the time Sister
Mary's Silver Jubilee occurred. The Twenty-fifth Anniversary
of her entry into the religious life was publicly celebrated, by
order of Bishop I. Mummadi of Guntur, on April 5, 1945. The
Bishop wished to be present at it and was able to go. The
Archbishop also came from Bangalore. Both were Indians.
It must have been a great joy to Sister Mary to have the
native hierarchy there. Thirty priests were also present at
the nuns' day of entertainment, which was, of course, preceded
by a Jubilee Mass. Sister Mary received a gift of 9000 rupees
(about £700 of those times) towards the cost of extensions
to St. Joseph's Hospital, for which she was most gratefui.
the extensions being greatly needed.
Of the praise showered on her at this function. Sister Mary
wrote, ‘‘the personal flattery cannot blind me to my own short
comings. Meanwhile, please help me to thank God for having
deigned to use His poor 'good for nothing’ " (a nickname
bestowed on her in her childhood) “so many years.”
However, in spite of her humility, Reverend Father Peter
of Guntur’s words in his Jubilee address were true. He referred
to her devoted and selfless work over twenty-five years in
stemming the tide of mortality and suffering among the help
less women and children of Guntur and district.
Reverend Mother Angelina of the Society of Jesus. Mary
and Joseph wrote to the Glowrey family of Sister Mary at
this time, “That good soul is far too busy. . . . What a fine
work her Reverence does and how much more she would do
had she only the time. Although fifty-nine years old now she
is still full of energy and zeal and acts as one of twenty-five
years. May God give her strength to carry on still many
years. ... Oh! we need lady doctors so badly, ones with
the spirit of self-sacrifice.”
By this time the annual number of midwifery cases at St.
Joseph's Hospital was approximately 3000. with one doctor
to look after them and all the general cases as well. The
hospital, by then, had been approved by the Madras Govern-
31
COMMUNITY HEALTH C-' I
s// *• 'H,s’ Hcor, St.
Ranqalore ,-n-t
s Ro-'
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
ment and registered by the Nurses’ Council as a Training
School for Nurses.
There had been food rationing during the war and it con
tinued after it because of famine conditions caused by drought.
Sister Mary, in one of her letters home, remarked that "most
people live constantly on the border-line of starvation."
"Malnutrition," she said, “is our biggest trouble even in
normal times. . . . The better fed eat rice and curry twice a
day; many will now have to be content with one meal.”
Her doctor friends, including Dr. Eileen Fitzgerald, the
Catholic Women's Social Guild, her own family and other
friends in Australia did what they could over the next several
years to alleviate the conditions at Guntur.
Soon after the war had ended, the nuns at Guntur had the
relief of receiving a new Australian postulant who was a quali
fied Pharmacist and Sister Mary shared directly in this for
soon she would have a trained person in charge of the com
pounding. In the early years she had done the training her
self. but later doctors were not allowed to do so. She had.
in order to save her poor patients expense, used many Indian
drugs in her pharmacy and been very successful with them.
The postulant was Miss Margaret Barrett, another Melbourne
woman, who became Sister Peter Julian, and is still in charge
of the Guntur St. Joseph's Hospital Pharmacy.
Yet another Australian, a treble-certificated nurse, Miss Kath
leen Monaghan, from Claremont, Queensland, had joined the
Society in 1939 and become Sister Anne Patricia. She died
early in her religious life.
St. Joseph's, through Sister Mary’s efforts, gained recog
nition as a training centre for "Compounders", i.e., Dispensers,
who did a one-year course. It was later (1960) superseded
by a Diploma Course. The Pharmacy Act of 1948 sought to
prevent the selling and dispensing of drugs by unqualified
persons.
In these post-war years. Sister Mary had to bear more family
sorrows from afar. In 1947 her aged mother broke her hip
and. as a consequence, died of pneumonia. Sister Mary’s
letters were a wonderful spiritual help to Mrs. Glowrey in her
last illness. Her sister Eliza, after a long, painful illness, died
32
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
in 1949 and her priest brother, Dean Edward Glowrey, P.P.,
V.F., of St. Arnaud in the Ballarat Diocese of Australia, whose
vocation she had done so much to foster, died suddenly at
the very end of 1950. Preaching at his Requiem Mass, the
Bishop of Ballarat. Most Reverend Dr. O’Collins, said, "He was
the last we should have expected to go. . . . We could ill afford,
in this diocese or in Australia, to lose a priest of his quality.
He was saintly, a gentleman, a zealous pastor and, beyond
these traits, he was a wise counsellor, a comforter of the sick
and a devoted, much-loved friend of the children of his Hock.”
In 1950, Sister Mary obtained more relief in her hospital
work through St. Joseph’s being able to obtain the services
of a lay woman doctor. Dr. Barretto. Her presence did not
mean that Dr. Sister Mary spared herself much but that the
two of them could now do more to help the multitude of very
ill patients. A Victorian hospital she quoted then had 150
doctors for fewer patients than at St. Joseph’s.
THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION AND
THE CATHOLIC MEDICAL COLLEGE OF INDIA
While tracing Dr. Mary Glowrey's career up to this time,
I have purposely omitted dealing with two very important
interests of hers. They are so important in her life-story
that they need a special section to themselves. You will
remember, however, the previous references to her early con
cern over the un-Catholic medical ethics being advocated in
India — and elsewhere — and her inspiration that an Indian
Catholic Medical College was a necessity. When, after years
of experience in an Indian hospital, the opportunity presented
itself she began working feverishly to attain her objectives.
We can only surmise al! the prayers that accompanied her
endeavours. The Divine aid given her may be seen in the
results today. She made contact with all the Indian Catholic
hospitals she could (there were very few), with the Indian
clergy, the Indian Hierarchy.
The first development was the Catholic Hospitals' Association
of India. The Guntur nuns of her Order say of it. "In fact,
she created this Association out of nothing — for at that time
33
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Catholic Hospitals scarcely existed in India. Under Sister
Mary’s inspiration and determination it eventually came into
existence in 1943. In Guntur the first meeting was arranged
and a very small group of Medical Missionary Sisters attended.
A small number of Congregations were represented and they
were all from the Madras State, and Guntur at that time
belonged to that State.” The Holy Father’s approval was
sought and given to the Association.
Thus the Catholic Hospitals Association was established.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey was appointed its
first President, a position she held till 1951 when ill health
forced her to resign. She then became Vice-President.
The same writers tell us more of Sister Mary's connection
with the Association. "Sister rarely missed the Annual Con
ference even if it meant a few days’ uncomfortable travelling.
In October, 1956, she was confined to her bed of suffering but
she had the great satisfaction of hearing that the Annual
Conference held in Calcutta had been the most successful up
to date. There were forty-eight delegates present representing
twenty-two Religious Congregations from all parts of India.
Incidentally, in 1964 at the C.H.A. Conference, held in Bom
bay during the Eucharistic Congress, there were 200 Delegates
present.
"At the Meeting in 1956, a resolut'on was passed that Sister
Mary, the Foundress and first President of the C.H.A.. be given
title of 'President Emeritus’, to be bestowed on her in grateful
recognition for all she had done for the Association throughout
its existence. During her later illness the C.H.A. had a very
special intention in her suffering prayers.”
During her period as President, Sister Mary organized
Catholic doctors and nurses throughout India into Guilds and
contributed to their better knowledge of the medical teachings
of the Church either by writing articles or giving conferences
wherever she could.
A Catholic Hospitals Magazine named THE CATHOLIC HOS
PITAL was established and was a splendid means of keeping
members in touch with one another and of giving Catholic
34
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
medical and nursing teaching in written form which could be
filed for reference. It still exists under the name of MEDICAL
SERVICE.
In the C.H.A. one of Sister Mary's most interesting meetings
was with Sister Dr. Anna Dengel, an Austrian, also drawn to
a medical mission vocation by Dr. McLaren. She trained in
Cork, Ireland, as the Indian Government would accept only
a British medical degree. She also went to India in 1920 but
as a lay mission doctor, and to the North, in the Punjab, to
Dr. McLaren's hospital, St. Catherine's, at Rawalpindi. (Dr.
McLaren had died in 1913 but her hospital had been carried
on after her death.) In 1925, convinced also that mission
doctors needed to be nuns, with American help she founded
the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, in Washington,
D.C., U.S.A. The Society, under Dr. Joanna Lyons, took charge
of Dr. McLaren’s hospital, in 1926, and later, when it had
more members than the original two, built its own hospitals
in Northern Indian cities and, eventually, in other countries.
Its headquarters are now in Philadelphia, U.S.A.
At the Bangalore meeting of the C.H.A. in 1944. Sister Mary
brought forward the idea of establishing an Indian Catholic
Medical College. She spoke very trenchantly on the urgent
reasons for beginning it quickly. In addition to the ethical
reasons, she knew that Catholic medical students were finding
it difficult to be included in quotas for other Indian medical
colleges because these could cope with only a limited number
of students. All the Bishops of India were very keen on the
idea and brought the planned scheme to the attention of the
Apostolic Delegate for India, asking him to approach the
Cardinal Prefect for the Propagation of the Faith so as to
obtain financial help on the large scale necessary. His Emin
ence Cardinal Fumasone Biondi contributed 10,000 dollars for
the College.
Dr. Anna Dengel supported Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart
zealously in working for the Medical College. Every year the
project was on the agenda of the C.H.A. meeting and given
priority. But finance was one of the chief obstacles.
35 “UU'JN,rY HEALTH CEU
JJb, V Main, I Block
Koramsngala
Bangalore-560034
India
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Dr. Sister Mary was not to live to see the College opened,
though she worked unceasingly for it till she could work no
longer, then prayed and offered her sufferings. St. John’s
Medical College was opened in 1963, in Bangalore, where Sister
Mary had died and where her grave is. One of her fellow
Sisters was among the first group of students admitted to the
College.
36
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
cbisler / / lary s (Journey to iourope
TN 1952, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart was elected to the
General Chapter of the Society of Jesus, Mary, Joseph.
She accompanied Reverend Mother Jacquelini, the Regional
Superior of the Order in India, to Holland for the election of
the Mother General. Mother Jacquelini had been forty-eight
years in India without a break.
There had to be many negotiations with the new independent
Indian Government before they could leave, for by then it
was difficult for a foreign religious to enter or re enter India.
In August the two nuns went from Madras to Calcutta by
air, a new experience for both, and flew on to Holland by
K.L.M., then a twenty-five hours’ journey, and were welcomed
at “Marienburg", at that time the head house of the Society.
Not only was Sister Mary busy with the elections. She had
to enter a Netherlands hospital for a major operation which,
though immediately successful, was the prelude to the years
of suffering that were to end her valuable life. Her sister,
Mrs. Connellan, knowing of Sister Mary’s illness, travelled
from Australia to Holland and was near her during most of
her European stay.
When Sister Mary had recovered from the operation she,
with other nuns of her Order, went to Eire (Ireland). Her
chief motive in the visit was to see if, pending the establishment
of the Indian Catholic Medical College, Indian nuns could
train as doctors in Cork, Eire. She was able to meet Mon
signor Reidy of Tralee, the priest who had put her in the
way of her vocation in Australia, and who helped her again
now in her quest. She interviewed Irish bishops and University
Presidents but failed to win this privilege for the Indian nuns.
After returning to Holland for a while. Reverend Mother
Jacquelini and Sister Mary went to Rome. They were very
disappointed that they could not have an audience with Pope
Pius XII, who was very ill at the time, but they visited many
places of interest and had discussions with various Prelates
and Heads of Religious Orders and Sister Mary inspected the
37
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
main hospitals. The Medical School for Missionaries was dis
cussed. Mother Mary Martin. Foundress of the Medical Mis
sionaries of Mary, came from Naples to meet her and discuss
mutual problems.
After this invigorating change, the nuns flew back to India
The first re union with their own Missions was at Bangalore.
Madras was visited, then the Order's other convents and hos
pitals. by now extended to Nellore, Kurnool, Sathanapally and
Porumilla. Returning then to Guntur, Sister Mary recommenced
her medical work at St. Joseph's Hospital. This was in March.
1953. Her sister stayed with her in Guntur for four months,
gaining a good knowledge of the mission work. At this time
all the wells were dry for there had been a four-years' drought.
Water had to be brought in tanks on carts from twenty miles
away. The drought broke in late Summer.
HER FINAL YEARS: WORK AND ILLNESS
ALTERNATE
In September Sister Mary had to enter St. Margaret's Hos
pital. Bangalore, in charge of the Sisters of Mercy, to have
a cataract removed from her eye. This operation was success
ful. Her eyesight had been bad for years but she had never
complained about it.
In December still another operation — this time in Madras —
was necessary. About this Sister Veronica and the Reverend
Mothers were very upset for it concerned a growth, as the
Netherlands operation had. There appeared to be no malig
nancy, however, and Sister Mary was soon back at her Guntur
medical work, at which she was busy for a year or two more.
In Europe she had been able to secure some much needed
hospital equipment and this was now a great relief to her.
As time went on, though, she felt her health deteriorating
again and had to suffer a fourth operation — at the nuns'
own hospital at Bangalore. When discharged “she made a
desperate effort to be her former self", as one of her nuns
has put it. Because a new doctor, a laywoman, was coming
to St. Joseph's Hospital, Guntur, she wanted to be there to
welcome her and so she was allowed to return.
38
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
She tried to go on as she had been doing for so many years
but the disease was fastening itself on her and she suffered
great pain. She had much difficulty in walking and often
had to retire to bed each day for hours that she wanted so
badly to give to God through her medical work.
However, she who had always desired only to do God's holy
will was henceforth wanted by Him to do it in a new and
terrible way.
The final years of her life were to be given to the Apostolate
of bodily suffering. She was being asked physically to share
Christ's Cross. She had laid the foundations of the medical
mission work at Guntur and others, by now, were capable of
carrying it on in the emergency though there was no other
nun doctor. She had laid the foundations of the Catholic
Hospitals Association of India and others were now able to
continue the work. She had long desired, worked for and
prayed for the establishment of the Indian Catholic Medical
College and her Divine Master sought her physical sufferings
to make this possible.
During 1955 and the early part of 1956 her condition was
becoming much worse, for the cancer was beginning to affect
her bones and was causing Sister Mary acute suffering. She
found writing very difficult but continued to deal with her
very large correspondence.
One of the J.M.J. Sisters describes the scene in the sick
room: "To the amusement and perhaps annoyance of the
Nursing Sisters, her bed was covered with papers of every
conceivable kind. In fact, it was like a paper stall in a little
disorder. Sister Mary always possessed a dry sense of humour
and shared in the remarks passed in her presence, but no
improvements came.
At last her condition became so serious that her Superiors
decided that Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart must leave the
unbearably hot plains of Guntur and go to their mountain hos
pital at Bangalore to be under the care of Sister Veronica
(Dr. Pitt).
Leaving the area of her life's work was a dreadful wrench
for Sister Mary, but she was a pattern of perfect obedience
39
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
in going without a murmur. With her medical knowledge she
must have realized that there would be no return.
In April, 1956, Sister Veronica and one of the Dutch nursing
Sisters escorted her to their Bangalore Convent and there she
spent the last suffering year of her life.
It was not long till she was completely bed-ridden. Despite
the constant intense pain in her spine and limbs, she tried
to occupy every waking moment of her day. She was alert
to all that went on in the Convent and took part in all the
religious exercises she could share. Her Rosary was con
tinually by her and was used very frequently.
Part of her time was given to the translating of the revised
Holy Rule from Dutch into English, a task set her by the
Reverend Mother, who knew she must have some work to
occupy her mind. When any movement of the arm became
too difficult — her left arm she could not move at all — she
had the Holy Rule Book suspended above her bed and turned
over the leaves with a stick. She had to lie flat on her back.
Yet she worked on correspondence connected with the Catholic
Hospitals Association and. at the command of her Superior.
she wrote her autobiography. Thus Sister Mary progressed
in her apostolate of suffering.
On November 21. 1956, the Feast of Our Lady’s Presentation.
she was sent a new and lasting cross. In trying to help her
nurse, she grasped the rail of her bed with her good right arm.
But the bone had become brittle under the influence of the
cancer and the arm broke. The doctors long tried to mend
it but without avail. This accident meant the close of her
writing career. She just had to lie on her bed bearing her
suffering, daily becoming worse, accepting God’s Holy Will.
which she had always sought to do, with perfect resignation.
her only regret, in her own words, “I have not done enough.
I could have done more.” But where would she have found
time to do more?
In Holy Week. 1957, Sister Mary took a turn for the worse.
She was glad to be sent the extra suffering at the time Our
Lord’s Passion and Death were commemorated.
Sister Veronica, her doctor, had gone away to Guntur on
the Palm Sunday, as a special treat and rest to mark her
40
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Silver Jubilee in the Order. On her return, it was decided,
with Sister Mary's backing, for she did not want it to be
postponed on account of her own grave condition, to celebrate
the Silver Jubilee at the Bangalore Convent of J.M.J. on the
Low Sunday. Sister Mary had written verse at intervals
throughout her life, and now, despite the pain she was in.
she composed songs for the occasion, and listened to the
Sisters rehearsing and their singing of songs at the
celebrations. She had asked the Sisters to pray that she
would live till this great event of the Jubilee was over and
her loving Master allowed this grace.
The following week Sister Mary became very much worse.
It seemed apparent that her death was approaching and Rev.
Mother Jacquelini at Guntur was notified. But at that time
it was impossible for her to leave there, much to Sister Mary’s
disappointment. Rev. Mother Edwiga and a Sister companion
went from Guntur instead, so that some of her old Guntur
companions would be with her. Then an unexpected improve
ment took place in the dangerously ill patient and the nuns
returned to Guntur, for there was urgent work to be done
there by the Reverend Mother, who had to return to Banga
lore at the end of May to take part in a Retreat for Superiors.
They left on May 2.
When, a few days later, an urgent telegram was sent to
Guntur saying that Sister Mary's condition had become critical.
Rev. Mother Edwiga and Sister Peter Julian had gone on to
the Sattenapalle Convent, where Rev. Mother Jacquelini now
was to inform her of Sister Mary's improvement. Someone
else was sent on to try to intercept them. But it was God's
will that they passed each other on the way unknown to each
other, and so none of her lifelong Guntur companions was with
Sister Mary at the end. However, two of the younger Indian
Sisters from Guntur had left to attend a conference at Ban
galore and they managed to arrive in time to represent Guntur
at Sister Mary's deathbed. She must have had great joy in
their presence, as it was for India and the Indians that she
had given her life in Christ.
The Archbishop often came to see her in her final days and
she liked to talk things over with him.
■11
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Sister Mary was conscious to the end and, till she could
no longer speak, joined in the prayers being said around her
bed. She also thanked the nuns for their kindness.
Her last words were, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph’’ and “My
Jesus, I love You", and she was able to kiss the Crucifix in
her last moments. She died at 4 a.m. on Sunday, May 5, Good
Shepherd Sunday, 1957. One of her last consolations was to
have her Australian sister in religion, Sister Veronica (Dr.
Pitt), as her devoted and efficient doctor.
The burial took place next day, at Bangalore. Many priests
and the Sisters of different congregations were present at the
final rites. The ceremonies were performed by Archbishop
Thomas Pothacamury of Bangalore, assisted by the Archbishop
of Hyderabad and a Vicar-General. They all followed the
body to the graveyard.
On May 6, word of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart’s
death having reached St. Joseph’s Convent, Guntur, a
Pontifical Requiem Mass for the repose of her soul was
celebrated by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Ignatius Mummadi,
D.D., Bishop of Guntur. In his sermon, sympathizing with the
Sisters of Jesus. Mary. Joseph, the Bishop said that the
departed Sister was a special creation of God. He spoke of
her indefatigable labour for the sick and for souls, how her
one thought was to lessen sin in the world and to ameliorate
the sufferings of the sick and of how she had a special love
for the poor. She had finished her life as a victim for souls
and had then gone on her way to Paradise to enjoy her eternal
reward.
DEVELOPMENTS IN INDIA AND ELSEWHERE
AFTER SISTER MARY’S DEATH
Did Mary Glowrey’s influence end with her bodily death?
Like that of all great minds certainly not. It is perhaps too
early to see her long-range influence, for it is only a decade
since her soul left this world. But there have been immediate
developments which bear the mark of Sister Mary of the
Sacred Heart Glowrey. There were projects begun before
her passing that have now reached their fulfilment. The
memory of the great good she did for the suffering people of
42
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
the Guntur area heartens those same people and their families
and the doctors and Sisters who have to carry on her work
without her wise counsel to guide them in difficult crises. Many
of them pray to her as well as for her eternal repose and feel
that her prayers to Almighty God have already brought striking
help where it was needed.
AUSTRALIA
Before looking at the Indian developments since Sister Mary’s
death, however, let us see what happened in her native land.
Australia.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey had, all her life
in India, longed for the establishment of her Order in Aus
tralia, and had interested her Superiors in her ideas. Members
of her family who had seen its work in India first-hand had
helped her to interest the Australian Hierarchy in it. Holland
having suffered so much in World War Two, many Dutch people
emigrated from it to Australia in the post-war years (and
are still migrating for various reasons). The time therefore
seemed opportune for the Dutch Order to make foundations
in Australia.
Certain Dutch migrants in Australia had been acquainted
with the Society of Jesus, Mary, Joseph in Holland and
were anxious to have the nuns with them in their new country.
Interest in the Society was shown in dioceses as far apart as
Wilcannia Forbes (in the district of Broken Hill, N.S.W.) and
Perth. W.A.
When the nuns of Jesus, Mary, Joseph did come to Aus
tralia it was to the Capital city of Australia, Canberra. A.C.T..
that they came, through the efforts of His Grace. Most Rev.
Eris O’Brien. D.D., Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn, and the
Ambassador for the Netherlands at Canberra.
In February. 1957, that is. before Sister Mary had died.
while she was immobile on her bed praying and suffering, the
Superior-General of the Society wrote to Archbishop O’Brien
expressing her willingness to send Sisters to his diocese, saying.
“Australia is attracting us”. Were Sister Mary’s prayers and
penances affecting the founding of the Society in her native
land? She had died before any more definite move was made.
43
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
In July, 1957, Most Rev. Dr. O'Brien, on his way back from
Ireland to Australia, visited the headquarters of the Society
of Jesus. Mary. Joseph, then at Marienburg, Holland. He
had known the Netherlands well when he had studied at the
famed University of Louvain, so he was quite at home there.
Apparently the bargain was clinched, as the saying is, between
the Archbishop and the Mother General. Sister Mary was
then only two months dead but it seems as if she had won
the gift for Australia from the Good God.
In October, 1957. Reverend Mother Daniella, the MotherGeneral, and her First Assistant. Mother Leon, after visiting
the Indonesian convents of the Society, flew to Australia to
make arrangements for a foundation there.
At Darwin, in northern Australia (the Northern Territory),
they were met by Sisters Veronica and Peter Julian from the
Indian convents at Bangalore and Guntur respectively, who
were beginning their first furlough visit to their native Aus
tralia. (This meeting had been planned, of course, for these
two nuns, knowing Australia so well, would prove sound
advisors to the two Dutch nuns.) They all flew to Sydney,
the two groups in their separate planes, where they stayed
awhile with the Sisters of Mercy, then Mother-General and
her Assistant went on to Canberra, staying with the same
Order there while they looked about for the best place for
beginning a kindergarten and a primary school, with the idea
of founding a secondary school later on. Sisters Veronica and
Peter Ju’ian went to Brisbane for a while.
Finally, they travelled to Melbourne and stayed at St. Vin
cent’s Hospital, where Dr. Glowrey had worked in her youth.
Sister Veronica was able to see the latest Australian medical
improvements and Sister Peter Julian the latest in Pharmacy
with a view to making use of them, if possible, in India. Both
the Australian nuns were re-united with their families and
friends there.
Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne — he was by then a nona
genarian but still retaining all the faculties that had made
him one of the great men of the century — received them
cordially and hoped they would make an establishment in the
Archdiocese.
44
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Cardinal Gilroy, Archbishop of Sydney, also invited the
Society there and Archbishop O'Brien thought they should also
approach the Brisbane authorities. Several other members
of the Hierarchy were anxious to have the nuns in their
dioceses.
On their way home to Holland, Mother-General and Mother
Leon visited their Indian convents. At Bangalore they went
to Sister Mary's grave. In a letter written soon after, Mother
Leon wrote: “Accompanied by Mother Jacquelini and all the
other Mothers of our houses in India, we visited our beloved
Sister Mary's grave. Sister Peter Julian placed flowers which
she brought with her from Australia, and Mother-General placed
a bouquet of fresh flowers from the Convent garden. We
prayed there, thankful for her help on our journey and
especially for the good help in our Australian undertaking.
We experienced the good Sister Mary’s help throughout our
journey. It was her work.”
Three years after Sister Mary’s death, in March, 1960, the
three Dutch pioneer Sisters reached Canberra to begin teach
ing there. They were Sisters Michael Kok, Cherubina Paauw
and Aloysine Smeeing. These also stayed with the hospitable
Sisters of Mercy till they had studied Australian customs and
education sufficiently to be conversant with the work that
lay ahead. Soon they were settled at the Holy Family Convent
at Narrabundah, a suburb of Canberra, and their school quickly
flourished with 400 children, boys and girls, receiving education
there. On September 3, 1961, it was blessed by Archbishop
O’Brien. In 1963, Reverend Mother Marie de Montfort, the
Superior-General, accompanied by Rev. Mother Leon, one of
her Assistants, came from Holland to visit it and stabilize
the Society's work in Australia.
By March. 1964, two Sisters were in Melbourne, following
a college course for a year to become better acquainted with
Australian educational procedure. There was one novice in
Canberra.
About the same time Mother Maria, one of the assistants of
the Mother-General, visited Australia to choose a site in Mel
bourne for a second Australian foundation. The result was the
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Sacred Heart Convent at Blackburn South, about ten miles east
of the city, in a new developing district towards the foothills of
the Dandenong Ranges. Its name was given to commemorate, in
her native land, the work of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart
Glowrey. There the nuns conduct the parish school. The
convent and school were blessed by Bishop Fox, Auxiliary
Bishop to Archbishop Simonds of Melbourne, successor to the
late Archbishop Mannix.
A third house has since been opened at Mooroolbark, some
miles north-east of Blackburn, at the foot of Mt. Dandenong.
Early in 1966 a young Dutch Australian nun, one of the pioneer
novices beforementioned, arrived at the Blackburn Convent
immediately after her profession at the Narrabundah Novitiate
of the Society. She was Sister Maria of the Sacred Heart,
who took her religious name in emulation of Sister Mary of
the Sacred Heart. Dr. Glowrey. for whom she showed great
love and admiration. Thus history was made in Australia for
the Society of Jesus. Mary, Joseph, and one of Dr. Glow
rey's dreams came true.
AFRICA
The inter-racial school and the Society's first hospital in
South Africa were opened in 1961. Recently the Sisters have
been managing a hostel for senior girls studying in a public
High School and they are also teaching at that school at the
special invitation of the Government. A third house has been
opened in Geita for Social Service and medical work. It has
now become a principle of the Society to work in a team with
seculars or members of other Congregations, according to
the need of the people.
GUNTUR
What, meantime, had been going on at the scene of Dr.
Glowrey's long labours in India? Guntur was saddened by
her death but there had been a long warning that it was
coming, and so St. Joseph’s Hospital had tried to adapt itself
to the new conditions. Lay women doctors, the chief of them
Dr. Gladys Lobo. M.D., carried on where Sister Dr. Mary
46
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
had left off. An Indian nun treblecertificated nurse, Sister
Ancilla, who had worked for many years there, took charge
of the staff. Sister Mary had great confidence in her. How
ever, she suffered a rather similar illness to Sister Mary
Glowrey's, though of shorter duration, and died early in 1964.
The lay doctors have continued the work very zealously and
efficiently. The latest news is that the nuns at Guntur soon
hope to have there a Sister Doctor who left India in 1958 and
has been studying medicine at the Catholic University of
Nijmegan in Holland. Four other Indian Sisters have also
begun medical studies at the same university and two are doing
the early part of their course at St. John's Medical College,
Bangalore. Thus the example of the two pioneer Sister Doctors
of the Society — Dr. Glowrey and Dr. Ethel Pitt — seems to
be ensuring continuation of their missionary work.
In the years since Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart's death,
St. Joseph's Hospital has progressed generally. Within a couple
of years of 1957, the Hospital extended by acquiring another
hospital block close by. and a cancer clinic with the necessary
equipment Sister Mary had been dreaming of for years was
established to complete the necessary requirements for the
nursing training within St. Joseph's. She had specially wanted
help for the cancer patients and her own cancer suffering
seemed to win it for the hospital. Latest news of it tells of
its twenty-five beds and an average of twelve in patients, 2000
people being helped annually by the Deep X-Ray plant and
many others by its Radium.
At the end of 1964, over 3000 operations were being done
annually at St. Joseph's Hospital and there were a new labora
tory and a Blood Bank. There were sixty nurses in training,
twelve being Sisters of the Congregation. There were also
fifteen Auxiliary Midwives — training for two years. St.
Joseph's Hospital also had a special Children’s Ward and also
a Premature Ward for an average of sixteen babies.
The out-patients' attendance for the whole hospital year was.
at the end of 1964, 49895, the in-patients were 8159, the babies
born 1829. The beds numbered 170, the cradles sixty.
47
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
In addition to the Hospital, the nuns have a small Health
Centre, about four miles from Guntur, where the Sisters go
for a few days each week to look after the extremely poor
people of the area. They attend over 8000 patients annually.
This Centre “is necessarj' also for the Auxiliary Nurses’ Train
ing—for the Domiciliary Nursing and Rural Health Work”.
writes a Sister from there. “Medical care in the villages is still
primitive. Every year cholera and smallpox epidemics occur.”
General education in the J.M.J. Society's schools at Guntur
is flourishing. You remember Sister Mary's battles for it, her
participation in it. in addition to her arduous medical work?
The nuns teach at three levels — primary, secondary and ter
tiary. English is now included in courses. The Bachelor of
Education College. Guntur, has 150 students, the Tenali J.M.J.
College for the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Science
courses has 265. Yet the Sister from Guntur remarks, “Only
a drop in the ocean of need in India.”
ST. JOHN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE AND THE
CATHOLIC HOSPITALS ASSOCIATION
Today. St. John's Medical College at Bangalore, Mysore,
Southern India, is. apart from the material and spiritual
results of her work at Guntur, the greatest memorial to Sister
Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey.
It was mentioned before that the College opened in 1963.
The students who came to it in that year, however, began
with only a pre-medical course, in July of that year, and in
a temporary building. In July, 1964, these fifty students set
out on their first year of the Bachelor of Medicine course and
so the College really began the work for which it had been
founded. St. Martha's Hospital, conducted by the Sisters of
the Good Shepherd, arranged as the basic teaching hospital
for the first few years, was renovated and extended to make
it more suitable for its purpose. It had been in existence for
nearly 100 years. Later, the College hopes to have its own
hospital at the College site.
48
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Finance was, of course, a great worry to those who estab
lished the College but some big donations to its funds did
much to allay fears. Among them were such amounts as these;
30,000 (U.S.A.) dollars from the Sacred Propagation of the
Faith;
$172,000 from Misereor for the purchase of land;
$85,000 from His Eminence the Cardinal of Vienna;
$70,000 from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Holland;
$50,000 from His Eminence Cardinal Spellman of New York;
$117,000 from collections in India;
$28,000 from the Hierarchy of the United Kingdom.
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith
agreed to give $50,000 a year for the first ten years to help
cover the recurring costs for that initial period. It is hoped
to raise as much as $1,000,000 in India over a period of a few
years. The Indian Hierarchy was in charge of the planning
for the Hospital developments and His Grace Most Rev. Dr.
Thomas Pothacamury, Archbishop of Bangalore, has taken a
prominent part in the planning.
His Holiness Pope John XXIII, as a mark of his approbation
of the St. John's College project and its aims, had agreed to
the College’s being named after his Patron Saint and in his
own honour. Hence its name.
His Eminence Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, was,
of course, most interested, all through, in the progress of the
College, and St. John's, through the permission of His Holiness.
Pope Paul VI, was made the chief memorial of the Thirty
eighth International Eucharistic Congress at Bombay in Novem
ber-December. 1964. The Foundation-stone for the permanent
building was blessed by His Holiness at a special ceremony
at the Bombay Eucharistic Congress on December 3. 1964,
the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, that great Apostle of Eastern
Asia, and soon after was taken to Bangalore. Latest news,
in 1966, is that the permanent building has been begun. The
first plan was too costly. The second has been approved and
seems to be final.
Australians have added their mite to defraying costs. During
1966, Dr. John Billings and Mr. Frank Morgan, two well-known
49
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
Victorian doctors, visited St. John’s College and, on their
return, gave it publicity in Australia. The medical staff of
St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, to which they are attached,
has sent money donations and the Victorian branch of the
Medical Guild of St. Luke a collection of books for the library.
Donations which have been sent to Dr. Billings at St. Vincent's
Hospital have been used to provide some items of medical
equipment.
The Catholic Hospitals Association, which Sister Mary of
the Sacred Heart Glowrey initiated, still functions zealously and
still brings out its magazine, now named MEDICAL SERVICE.
The Association took part in the Bombay Eucharistic Congress
and Sister Mary's old colleague. Dr. Anna Dengel, now MotherGeneral of the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, which
she founded in 1925. gave an address at it. She still leads a
very busy, fruitful life, constantly touring from country to
country to visit houses of her Society which has its head
quarters in U.S.A.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey left this world
too soon to be included in the special Apostolic Blessing given
by His Holiness. Pope Paul VI, to Cardinal Gracias and all
those who. as the Pope said, would assist him "in this praise
worthy undertaking", the development of St. John's College.
But by the time all in India and elsewhere were expressing
their gratitude to Pope Paul, she must have long since received
her heavenly reward from her Divine Mastei- for her lifelong
struggle to make the College a reality.
One feels that the College will never be forgotten in her
prayers before the Throne of Almighty God. and that, because
of them, united with the prayers of those still on earth who
realize its importance. St. John’s College will do countless
good for the many millions of Indians of the future who will
need the Christian medical aid of the doctors it will give them.
lay and religious, for as many generations as we can imagine.
May persecution never prevent it from functioning and may
sister colleges arise, when they are needed, to supplement
its work.
50
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
TRIBUTES TO SISTER MARY
In the brief space at disposal in this small booklet the fore
going is all that can be said of Dr. Mary Glowrey’s life-work
and its effects. There is room for but a few of the many
tributes to her, both before and after her death by people who
knew her in early or later life or who knew of the importance
of the work she did and of her heroic sanctity. Probably,
some day in the near future a more comprehensive appraisal
of her life will be given in a full-scale biographical volume
and in it the many tributes which cannot be included here
may perhaps be read by the readers of all continents whose
appetites for more details have been whetted by this little
booklet.
One tribute of great significance was received by Sister
Dr. Mary a few months before her death. She was nominated
by the National Council of Catholic Women of America for a
Federal Government honour as one of the outstanding leaders
of Asia and was invited to visit the United States. Sister
Mary was unable to accept the invitation because she was,
by that time, a complete invalid. The worldly honour probably
meant little to her as such but she possibly accepted it as a
recognition of the actual work done which she regarded as
urgent and satisfying for her Divine Master's sake.
Most of her Australian friends and acquaintances who paid
tribute to her after her death remembered her chiefly as
they saw her in her youth.
Thus Miss Anna Brennan. LL.B., who was at the University
of Melbourne with Mary Glowrey and later worked with her
on the pioneer committee of the Catholic Women’s Social Guild.
writing in the Guild’s official journal. THE HORIZON, of July.
1957, stated that “hers was not a personality that immediately
‘hit the eye’."
“ 'A sweet girl', we remarked at an age when such a ver
dict was almost a disparagement. We in our assertive youth.
our callow strength and assured wisdom were going to reform
the world, not conform to it. We who are still talking to a
world which seems singularly unimpressed with our eloquence
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
thought her something of a mouse. Yet even then she was
beginning as she meant to go on. It was only years afterwards
that I learned," wrote Miss Brennan, “that her allowance of
pocket-money went mostly into the pockets of the poor — those
sad products of poverty and sickness which came into the
ambit of a medical student's life.”
In a letter to Sister Stanislaus, an old friend of Sister Mary
in the Society of Jesus. Mary and Joseph, who had been the
first Indian Superior of St. Joseph's Convent. Guntur, 1958-1962.
Miss L. Philipsz, ex-Principal of the Lady Willingdon Training
College, Madras, said. "Sister Mary's death has deprived not
only your Community and your Congregation of a holy and
saintly member, but also your district and. I should say, the
whole country of one whose healing touch brought relief and
comfort to thousands of suffering men and women. Hers was.
indeed, a dedicated life — dedicated to the love and service
of God and of His poor, suffering children. Great, indeed,
will be her reward.”
Mother Anna Dengel. S.C.M.M., in her letter of condolence
to the Mother Superior of St. Joseph's Convent, Guntur,
referred to Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey’s found
ing of the Catholic Hospitals Association and her insistence
on the need of a Catholic Medical College. “It is. indeed, a
great necessity which becomes clearer every day,” she said.
"although, at the time Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart advo
cated it, it required great vision.”
There is the testimony of Rev. Fr. K. Peter, the Spiritual
Director of St. Joseph’s Convent, Guntur, for eleven years:
“By faith and grace she" (i.e.. Sister Mary) “inculcated in
others who came in contact with her the inner life of the
Holy Spirit that dominated her wisdom and work. Only very
few can combine interior tenderness of love and exterior
devotion in the discharge of their duties.
"As regards my personal opinion, without fear of contra
diction I can say that Sister Mary led an inspired and angelic
life.”
The tributes of her Sisters in Religion who had known her
very well, some for the whole time she had spent in India.
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
were in the same vein. Mothers Stanislaus, Edwiga, Jacquelini, Arnoldi — Indian and Dutch nuns — and her fellow
Australians — Sisters Veronica and Peter Julian — reinforced
the remarks of others I have quoted.
UNION WITH GOD
The secret of this indefatigable medical missionary's spiritual
and material success would seem to lie in her close communion
. with the Heavenly Ones. Throughout her life she tried to
submit as well as she knew how to the Will of Almighty God
and was always conscious of her inadequacies. She was for■ ever remembering the Patrons of her Society — Jesus, Mary
and Joseph — and tried to model her life, where she could,
on that of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Her name in religion
was a constant reminder to her that she must always mirror
the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that she must cling
close to the Blessed Virgin Mary after whom she was doubly
named, at baptism and as a nun. She sought frequent associa
tion with St. Joseph in prayer, for he was not only a patron
of her Religious Order but the patron of the Guntur J.M.J.
Convent and its hospital which was her heaviest responsibility.
She worshipped God in the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity
— the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — according to her
soul’s need. But perhaps her most frequent recourse was to
the Holy Spirit for guidance in her life work.
A J.M.J. nun who knew her well over most of her life in
religion says of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowrey,
"On all occasions, and continuously, Sister Mary would ask
each and everyone she met to pray to the Holy Spirit for her
that she might receive special light to know what to do. How
often one heard the remark: 'I do need the Light of the Holy
Spirit very badly.’ Our answer was: 'The poor Holy Spirit
must be weary of you. You give Him no peace in solving
your endless problems.’ She would always smile and repeat
the request.”
The same Sister adds, "It is almost certain that Sister Mary
never attempted anything and never finished anything without
seeking the aid and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Such was
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AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL NUN IN INDIA.
her devotion to and union with Him in her daily work. This
' proved again and showed her deep humility in her realization
that without the gift of the Holy Spirit she could do nothing.
but with Him she could attempt all things. She did attempt
the impossible at all times and she tried to inspire others to
attempt them also".
CONCLUSION
Here, then, is this very brief history of Dr. Mary Glowrey,
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart's life and of the memorials
that have lived on after her. For all that has had to be left
unsaid the writer apologizes. Space has been the chief cause
of omissions. A full book biography must follow before long
and it must be written by someone who really saw her work
in India over many years, and must fill the gaps left here.
In Dr. Glowrey's early days in Australia, when the Very
Rev. Fr. Lockington. S.J., persuaded her to become the first
President of the Catholic Women’s Social Guild of Victoria,
i the Guild motto, “She Hath Put Out Her Hand To Strong
Things”, taken from the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testa
ment of the Bible, was on all Guild members' lips. The young
First President thought of it, probably, as applying to all the
Guild members, she herself just one of the many, and to others
more than to her. She did not realize how perfectly it could
be applied to her herself, in particular, when her life on Earth
had ended and the world could view it as a whole.
Sister Mary had all the attributes of the Valiant Woman.
Though the original Valiant Woman was a wife and mother
and Sister Mary a virgin, Sister Dr. Mary, as she was so
often called by those around her, was the Spiritual Spouse of
Christ, and the people of India were her children and house(hold helps. She mothered them; she saved lives and souls. And
they, her spiritual children, "are the first to call her blessed".
From Heaven and Earth they praise her, for they, more than
any other human beings, have had reason to be grateful to her.
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