She joined the North Sydney congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, professing final vows in 1907.
Trained as a nurse, she served as matron of the Mater Misericordis Hospital in the north Sydney area, for 44 years.
Mary May Scollen was born on 11 May 1887 in the town of Redfern, near Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.
Her parents, Patrick and Susan (née Smith) Scollen were both born in Ireland, and emigrated to Australia.
[1] In 1905, Mary May entered the novitiate at the Sisters of Mercy convent in North Sydney.
The Sisters of Mercy were founded by an Irish Catholic lay woman, Catherine McAuley, in Dublin in 1827.
[1] Immediately, she was faced with the enormous challenge of leading the hospital's response to the Spanish influenza pandemic.