Mary Glowrey JMJ, religious name Mary of the Sacred Heart, was an Australian born religious sister and educated doctor who spent 37 years in India, where she set up healthcare facilities, services and systems.
25 Facts About Mary Glowrey
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Mary Glowrey is believed to be the first religious sister to practise as a doctor.
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Mary Glowrey was born in the Victorian town of Birregurra on 23 June 1887.
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Mary Glowrey's family moved to Garvoc, then north to Watchem, in Victoria's Mallee region.
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In 1900 Glowrey came fourth of 800 entrants in a Victorian State Education secondary scholarship exam.
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Mary Glowrey boarded at the Good Shepherd Convent in Albert Park.
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Mary Glowrey matriculated at the end of her first year at SMC and won an Exhibition to study at the University of Melbourne.
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In 1905 Mary Glowrey completed her first year of a Bachelor of Arts course at the University of Melbourne.
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Mary Glowrey attended the first year of the St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne Clinical School in 1910.
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Mary Glowrey graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1910.
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Mary Glowrey later returned to the University of Melbourne to undertake higher medical studies, graduating with a Doctor of Medicine in 1919 in obstetrics, gynaecology and ophthalmology.
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In 1911, Mary Glowrey became the first female doctor at Christchurch Hospital and one of the first two women appointed to a residency position in New Zealand.
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Mary Glowrey boarded at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital from 1915 to 1919 and took on many of the medical duties of the male doctors who signed up to serve in the First World War.
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Mary Glowrey had a private practice in Collins Street, Melbourne during these years.
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In October 1915, Mary Glowrey read a pamphlet about the life of Agnes McLaren, a pioneering Scottish missionary doctor, and the need for women doctors in India, and felt called to serve as a medical missionary doctor there.
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Mary Glowrey discerned this religious vocation over subsequent years with her spiritual director, Father William Lockington SJ.
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Mary Glowrey left Melbourne on 21 January 1920 and never returned to Australia.
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Mary Glowrey joined the Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph and took the religious name Mary of the Sacred Heart.
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In 1922, after the completion of her novitiate, Mary Glowrey began practising as a doctor.
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The basic dispensary where Mary Glowrey began her medical mission work in Guntur grew into St Joseph's Hospital.
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Mary Glowrey provided direct medical care for hundreds of thousands of patients, most of them marginalised women.
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Mary Glowrey trained local women to be compounders, midwives and nurses.
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In 1943 Mary Glowrey founded the Catholic Health Association of India.
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Mary Glowrey died in Bangalore from cancer on 5 May 1957 at 69 years of age.
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Mary Glowrey was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2015.
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