The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary are a congregation of pontifical right of Catholic religious women. The order is dedicated to evangelization. In its missionary activity it is within the ambit of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome.
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History
The founders of the congregation were eleven lay-women who left France from the early nineteenth century to assist in the missions established by the Marist Fathers in the South Pacific. The first of these women was Marie Françoise Perreton (1796 - 1873) who went to the mission on Wallis Island in 1846. Between 1857 and 1860 ten more missionaries arrived in Oceania. They were all members of the "Third Order of Mary" approved in 1845. They had a Rule, a habit, a vow of obedience to the local Bishop, were called "Sister". In 1881 they were established as a diocesan congregation. The Sisters became very active in the Pacific. By 1931 they were staffing a hospital for leprosy on Makogai Island in Fiji. They were also working in missions in the North and South Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Tonga, Samoa and Wallis and Futuna. In 1931 the Sisters were reorganised into a Congregation of Pontifical Right and given the new name of Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary.
Today
The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary now work 23 countries mostly in the areas of education and religious communication.