Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMMs)
We are an international congregation of women religious, founded by Mother Mary Martin in Nigeria, in 1937. We want to bring Christ's healing love to people, and we do this by brining health services wherever there is greatest need.
MMMs are serving in fourteen countries around the world.
Our Work
Sisters are trained in a variety of health-related professions. Some sisters are trained surgeons, and perform operations. Others are trained nurses. Some specialise in keeping up to date with HIV/ AIDS treatments, or palliative care for the dying. Other sisters are involved in health education, and work with local people to improve hygiene and healthcare – for example, training birth attendants to help women deliver babies safely.
Our concern is for the whole person, not just their illness or injury. With Mary as our model, our special concern is the care of mother and child and fostering of family life, so we make sure that children left orphaned when their parents have died of AIDS are educated and looked after. We always help in whatever way help is needed eg as people struggle to recover from some disaster or from years of war, developing health and nutrition services as well as trauma counselling.
As missionaries, our job is to work ourselves out of a job as quickly as possible. As soon as we have established health services, we work with local people, and when we are assured that the work can continue without us, we move on to places of greater need.
Our Prayer
If you ask any MMM Sister where she draws themotivation for the work she does, she will think for a moment and surely reply, “It comes from prayer” - daily prayer energizing our daily work.
Our “convent” where we put our prayer and love into practice, is the world. We attend mass every day, spend time in personal prayer, and pray the Divine Office together, whenever we can. Our daily schedule is more flexible than other monks or nuns, because of the demands of our work, but we always remember that it is our prayer that gives us the love and strength to keep on going and do the work we do.
Through our daily participation in the Mass, and through our prayer, we are loyal to Christ when He said “Whatever you did to the least of my brethren, you did it to Me.”, and “love one another as I have loved you.”