Mary Louise St. John

Who is Mary Louise St. John?

Sister Mary Louise St. John, O.S.B., was a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania. She was born March 13, 1943, in Glens Falls, New York to Joseph St. John and Alvarez DeMarsh, along with her sisters Maria and Murial. As a child she developed muscular dystrophy, from which she would suffer her entire life. Her mother had to fight to provide her with a decent education due to the discrimination children with disabilities faced.

In 1970 St. John entered the Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified at their now-defunct Regina Mundi Priory in Devon, Pennsylvania. They are an enclosed religious order dedicated to making the contemplative life possible for women with physical disabilities. In 1978 she transferred to the Erie Benedictine congregation and professed her perpetual monastic vows at their motherhouse, Mount St. Benedict, in 1982.

St. John worked as a cytotechnologist at Regina Mundi in Devon from 1974 to 1976 and as a tutor there from 1976 to 1978. She also tutored students at Mount St.