The Knoll, known as Maryknoll.

The Maryknoll Sisters Center is situated in Ossining, New York. It consists of the Main Building, the adjacent 56 Wing, Rogers Building, the grounds, and the cemetery. It is situated across the road from the Maryknoll Fathers’ properties. The address of the Center is 10 Pines Bridge Road, Ossining, New York.

Where did the name Maryknoll come from? It came from the two founders of the Maryknoll Fathers. As historian Jean-Paul Wiest explains in his book Maryknoll in China (Armonk, 1988), “Father Walsh had vacationed in a beautiful resort in New Hampshire called ‘The Knolls.’ This designation was combined with Father Prices profound devotion for Our Lady, and ‘Maryknoll’ became the name of the large farm on Sunset Hill in Ossining that they purchased to launch their missionary enterprise.” (pp. 25, 27)

This website is part of my research project on “The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921-1969,” funded by the Hong Kong Governments Research Grants Council and the Hong Kong Baptist University. I took four research trips to the Maryknoll Sisters Center and the Maryknoll Mission Archives, and have published books on the Maryknoll Sisters:

Cindy Yik-yi Chu. The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921-1969: In Love with the Chinese. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004; Paperback Edition, 2007. (Chinese translation published in 2007.)

Cindy Yik-yi Chu. The Diaries of the Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921-1966. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong belong to a foreign mission group, whose headquarters is in the United States. This website aims to introduce the Maryknoll Sisters Center, and to promote better understanding of the Maryknoll mission.

I would like to thank Sister Betty Ann Maheu, Cheng Pak Chi and Ho Ka Chun for their help in preparing this website. The MCS Former Students Association has given permission to show two articles published in its newsletter Maryknoller.

If you want to read about the Maryknoll mission, there are also other choices:

Penny Lernoux. Hearts on Fire: The Story of the Maryknoll Sisters. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1993.

Sister Jeanne Marie. Maryknolls First Lady. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1964.

Jean-Paul Wiest. Maryknoll in China. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1988.

This website contains photos which I took during my visits at Maryknoll over the past few years. Hope you enjoy them!

Cindy Yik-yi Chu

Professor,
Department of History,
Hong Kong Baptist University,
Hong Kong

E-mail: cindychu@hkbu.edu.hk