The Legion of Mary was founded in Dublin, Ireland on 7 September 1921. It is
a lay Catholic organisation, whose members are giving service to the Church on a
voluntary basis in 176 countries.
Its first members comprised 15 women, mainly young, and one man and a priest.
They chose to visit the dying in a local hospital. The first four groups -
called praesidia - were also of women. But gradually as it spread to
other areas of the world, groups of men were formed - in the USA, China and in
Africa. Now there are praesidia of men, women, men and women, young and old.
The oldest member of the first praesidium - Elizabeth Mary Kirwin -
was appointed the president. And when the four praesidia formed a council she
was elected president of this council, now called the Concilium Legionis.
She was born in New Zealand in the town of Dunedin in 1857.
New Zealand
When the Legion of Mary started in New Zealand on the 8 December 1933 it was
started in Dunedin by the Rev Dr Klimeck, who later became a Dominican Friar. He
worked as a chaplain in World War II in Europe, a missionary in Africa and an
apostle of the Rosary in New Zealand. He was always in contact with the Legion
in the countries he was stationed.
In New Zealand the Legion spread first from the Dunedin diocese to the
Christchurch diocese in 1934 and to the Auckland diocese in 1938. Vincent
Pledger and his wife were among its mainstays in the three centres mentioned
and later in the Wellington Archdiocese in 1946. During World War II some of the
NZ forces were members of the Legion of Mary in North Africa and Palestine.
The Legion council in Auckland, under the direction of Bishop James Michael
Liston, became a Senatus and was responsible for the spread and welfare of the
Legion in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, the islands of Samoa, Fiji and later
Tonga. Fiji was later attached to Melbourne Senatus.
