Medical Mission Sisters

The Medical Mission Sisters (MMS) are a Roman Catholic congregation of women religious founded on 30 September 1925 in Washington, D.C., by Dr Anna Dengel of Austria together with Dr Johanna Lyons, Evelyn Flieger and Marie Ulbrich, originally under the name Society of the Catholic Medical Missions, to provide better access to healthcare for poor people around the world by combining professional medical training with religious life. The Catholic Church officially approved the sisters' practice of medicine in 1935, permitting members to make canonical vows, and by 2023 the congregation counted about 450 sisters plus more than 100 lay associates working in medical missions across 20 nations, with its North American headquarters established in Philadelphia in 1964.