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Marie Musaeus Higgins (May 18, 1855 – July 10, 1926) was a German educationist, best known as the founder and principal of Musaeus College in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She also authored several publications based on Buddhist and Sinhala cultural themes, including Poya Days in 1924. She is recognized as an important figure in the pre-independence Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka and a pioneer in female education in the country.
Biography
Higgins was born in Wismar, which was part of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Germany. In Germany, after she completed her education, she became a "Frau Professor. In the 1880s she went to the United States with her brothers where she met her husband, Anton Higgins, who was a U.S. Army officer. Anton was a Theosophist and Marie Higgins eventually founded the Blavatsky Theosophist Lodge. Her husband died a few years after their marriage, and Higgins went on to Ceylon with Colonel Olcott.
Higgins founded the Musaeus Girls' School, first in a small mud hut, but eventually replacing the hut with a brick building in 1895.