[2] Maryknollers are sometimes known as the "Marines of the Catholic Church" for their reputation of moving into rough areas, living side-by-side with the indigenous peoples and learning the language.

The organizations are independent entities with shared history that work closely together in the joint focus of the overseas mission activity of the Catholic Church particularly in East Asia, the United States, Latin America, and Africa.

It was part of an era of heavy migrations of European Catholics to the United States and there was a cultural hostility to Roman Catholicism.

The establishment of Maryknoll for foreign missions came at a time when the Catholic church was focusing its energies on that anti-Catholic bias within the United States.

[13] In 1910, Father Thomas Price was facing the failure of his attempt to begin a Catholic order for domestic mission work in the South.

They were complementary in character; Walsh had a knack for organization and planning things on a grand scale while Price was a "Tarheel" from North Carolina who was personable and charismatic.

"[12] In 1912, The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (CFMSA) was launched in a rented property Hawthorne, New York, with a total of six men.

Rogers emerged as their natural leader and envisioned the women as missioners in their own right and not merely serving in supportive roles to the men.

They contracted for a parcel in Pocantico Hills in July, 1912 but John D. Rockefeller, who owned the property on the other side and did not want a seminary as a neighbor, contested the purchase in court.

Walsh and Price found a 93-acre hill in Ossining that included three houses and a barn and was now affordable due to the Rockefeller windfall.

Rogers replied to her colleagues, "I want you to know how wholly I belong to you in every hour of the day and night, to serve you, to love you, to watch over you and with you, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for of myself I can do nothing.

[27][11][18] The Teresians began studying with the Scranton Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as they planned to petition for official recognition from Rome.

Raymond Lane, who made his profession that year in the inaugural class, wrote that the success of the venture was greatly due to residents of Scranton who supported the new seminary with meals, transportation, and donations.

In 1916, Walsh, after some difficulty, acquired 179 acres in Clarks Summit, PA and a school set up in an old farm house on the property.

[31] James Edward Walsh, Francis X. Ford, and Bernard F. Meyer along with Price as Mission Superior departed for China on September 7, 1918.

Their first stop in Asia was Hong Kong (a British colony at the time), to acclimate briefly with the Paris Foreign Missions Society, which was the predominant Catholic organization in China.

He gave this emphasis in a way that was very simple and yet highly important, and that was by taking very seriously every little piece of work that was done for the people – the simplest service in the Church, even though it should be attended by only a handful, the insistence on a complete schedule of church services for them just as if he had been in the biggest parish in his own country; the immediate planning for whatever they needed in the matter of religious, educational, medical and other help, even though plans could not be immediately realized, the most patient and courteous reception for every visitor; the scrupulous visits to the outlying villages, even though some of them contained only a few apparently hopeless apostates; and, in general, the placing of himself, his mission and all his energies and resources at the complete service of the people.In short, Father Price knew why he went to China, and if we did not know it, we soon learned it from his example.

[37] The abandoned babies were almost all female and traditionally drowned before the Maryknollers built facilities and began offering a few cents for every child.

The building has distinctive design, specifically with pagodas built into its architecture, to honor its founding purpose as a mission order to the Far East.

[40] An ex-Maryknoll priest, now deceased, recently was reported to have sexually abused a young boy for about eight years during the 1960s when he was assigned to parishes in Westchester County.

He is one of six clergy recently added to the list priests from the diocese cited for 'credible and substantiated' allegations of sexual abuse against a minor.