Meet some of the real women of the Roman Catholic Church––saints, sinners, & sundry––from all eras. @RealRCMen's companion. By historian @bronwenmcshea.
New York, NY, USA
Joined December 2025
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Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
One of the first women to chair a political party in Europe was a devout Roman Catholic whom the Nazis didn't like & who believed the postwar political order should be informed by Christian social teachings.
Meet HELENE WESSEL (1898-1969) of Hörde, a Catholic social worker & parliamentarian deemed "politically unreliable" by the Nazis. Chairing the Catholic Centre Party by 1949, she was the 1st woman to lead a German political party & was a pacifist opposed to Germany's rearmament.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
If you like my account @RealRCWomen, you may be interested in its new companion account, @RealRCMen. Here is my second post there:
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
We know as much as we do about this remarkable medieval Englishwoman -- who lived through some of the violence of the Crusades -- because her brother, Thomas of Froidmont, a Cistercian monk who had been in the service of St. Thomas à Becket, took the time to write her story: "Hodoeporicon et percale Margarite Iherosolimitane" ("The Itinerary and Perils of Margaret of Jerusalem").
Meet MARGARET OF BEVERLEY (d. c. 1215), an Englishwoman who, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, got caught up in Saladin's Siege of Jerusalem in 1187 & helped defend the city until it fell. Enslaved by Muslims but freed, she explored Europe & became a Cistercian nun in France.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
I started @RealRCWomen 10 months ago, & it just reached 6,000 followers this evening. It's heartening to see so many men & women on this app showing interest in the history of diverse, real women of the Catholic Church through the ages. I'll try to keep providing good content!
Followers of @RealRCWomen -- if you are interested, @bronwenmcshea is experimenting with a new companion account, @RealRCMen. Here is its inaugural post, but generally the two accounts with NOT cross-post so as to avoid cluttering your feeds if you decide to follow both. During this trial period, there will likely be a new post here every other day, & news posts there on the alternate days.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet MARY GLOWREY (1887-1957) of Birregurra, Australia. An MD trained at the University of Melbourne, she practiced medicine in Oceania for 9 years & then for decades in India as a religious sister devoted to the poor. She also founded the Catholic Health Association of India.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet FRANÇOISE D'AUBIGNÉ DE MAINTENON (1635-1719), Louis XIV's 2nd wife. Born in prison & too low-born to be crowned France's Queen, she founded & governed a convent, purged heterodox priests from court, got Rome to censure Archbishop Fénelon, & got the King to stop womanizing.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet ST. LAURA MONTOYA (1874-1949) of Colombia. Her father was killed when she was 2 & she grew up in an orphanage her aunt ran. After evangelizing indigenous people as a laywoman, she founded a missionary congregation & led it under her new name Laura de Santa Catalina de Siena.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Possibly the first-ever Roman Catholic religious sister to have practiced medicine as an MD (although many had done without university training for centuries, including in mission contexts such as 17th c. Canada), Pope Leo XIV last year declared Mary Glowery "Venerable," so her cause for canonization as a saint is open. The congregation that she joined in India in 1920, after having practiced medicine for some years already, was the Society of Jesus Mary Joseph.
Meet MARY GLOWREY (1887-1957) of Birregurra, Australia. An MD trained at the University of Melbourne, she practiced medicine in Oceania for 9 years & then for decades in India as a religious sister devoted to the poor. She also founded the Catholic Health Association of India.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Today is this Colombian woman's feast day in the Catholic Church. She was canonized by Pope Francis early during his pontificate. The congregation she founded, the Hermanas Misioneras de María Inmaculada y Santa Catalina de Siena, are also known as the Misioneras Lauritas after their foundress. They are active today in Indigenous pastoral ministry, education, and service to Afro-Colombian communities.
Meet ST. LAURA MONTOYA (1874-1949) of Colombia. Her father was killed when she was 2 & she grew up in an orphanage her aunt ran. After evangelizing indigenous people as a laywoman, she founded a missionary congregation & led it under her new name Laura de Santa Catalina de Siena.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet MADELEINE DUPONT / MARY OF JESUS (1851-1942), French-born Discalced Carmelite nun who helped form in 1878 the 1st-ever Discalced Carmelite community in the British Isles, in London's Notting Hill. As Prioress for 59 years, she founded 33 other Carmels in the British Isles.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet LEONORA DE ALBERTI (1870-1934) of London, author of historical works & of Spanish/English & Portuguese/English dictionaries, leading Catholic women's suffragist, editor of "The Catholic Suffragist" journal, & an activist for women's representation at the League of Nations.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet BL. MARIA MAGDALENA JAHN (1916-1945), who worked at a fruit processing plant as a teen in Germany, looked after people with special needs, became a Sister of St. Elizabeth & served as a nurse & cook, & was shot dead by a Soviet soldier whose rape attempt she was resisting.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet JULIA GREELEY (1833-1918). Born into slavery in Missouri, she built a new life post-Emancipation as a freelance cook & nanny in St. Louis & then Denver, assisted the poor with her earnings, became a Catholic in 1880 & a Secular Franciscan late in life, & is up for sainthood.
Real Roman Catholic Women retweeted
Meet RACHEL HARRIETTE BUSK (1831-1907), who was homeschooled by her British Protestant father, who became a Catholic at age 27, relocated to Rome & traveled widely, & became a widely respected folklorist, journalist, & author of many books. She influenced Hilaire Belloc & others.
