California Dominicans revisit unsung pioneer behind state’s first women’s congregation

Marking the 175th anniversary of California’s first congregation of women religious, an Oct. 3 presentation will revisit the story of the Belgian-born Dominican sister whose missionary work helped establish the community.

Mother Mary Goemaere arrived in California in 1850 and founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Name, now known as the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. The community opened some of the state’s earliest Catholic schools and later expanded its ministry into higher education and health care, according to a Sept. 8 report from the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Sister Patricia Dougherty, the congregation’s historian, will lead the presentation at the sisters’ headquarters in San Rafael. 

“Mother Mary was deeply religious,” Sister Patricia said. “She was also capable, determined and fearless.”

Mother Mary had been living as a contemplative nun in France when Bishop Joseph Alemany, the first archbishop of San Francisco, invited her to assist the Church’s educational mission in the U.S. That call ultimately brought her to California during the rapid growth of the Gold Rush.

The presentation brings together Sister Patricia’s decades of research into Mother Mary’s life, including details that had largely disappeared from the historical record in her Belgian hometown. When Sister Patricia visited an archive there, she found little information about the foundress beyond her birth date on a family tree.

“That moment was a jaw-dropping moment for me,” she said. “No indication that she had entered religious life. No hint that she had crossed an ocean, founded schools, or established the first congregation of women religious in California.”

The event will also feature correspondence and personal belongings of Mother Mary that have been preserved by the congregation.

“This work has become for me a ministry of memory,” Sister Patricia said. “To recover the life of Mother Mary Goemaere is not simply to fill in historical gaps, but to give rightful recognition to an unsung pioneer in missionary California.”