Mary Potter was born in a rented house at 23 Old Jamaica Road in Bermondsey, South London.

[1] Mary Potter had a congenital heart and lung disease which left her in frail health, and with a permanent cough, for the rest of her life.

After about four months, she wrote to Godfrey to terminate the engagement,[3] after the bishop of Southwark, Thomas Grant, suggested she seek her calling as a religious sister.

Potter sought spiritual advice from Monsignor John Vertue, newly arrived in Southsea as a military chaplain.

Bagshawe offered to pay the rent for 12 months and Potter found a disused stocking factory in Hyson Green for the beginnings of her "special work".

Bishop Bagshawe did not agree with Potter's vision of the Little Company of Mary and could not understand that she wanted the sisters to be both "active and contemplative".

[4] She went to Rome in 1882 to gain approval for the Constitutions of her new Congregation and, while there, established Calvary Hospital on the Via S Stefano Rotondo, not far from St John Lateran.

[6] The Little Company of Mary then spread to the southern hemisphere and flourished, attending the sick, the poor and the dying where they were needed.

In addition, one of the conference rooms in the Newton building of Nottingham Trent University was named in her honour in January 2010, following its refurbishment.

The Brides of Christ (Our Lady's little library series) Hardcover – 1920 Devotion for the Dying and the Holy Souls in Purgatory: Mary's Call to Her Loving Children (TAN Books)