Rosemary Anne Benwell

Rosemary Anne Benwell was born in England and emigrated with her family to Manitoba. At a young age she longed to be a priest in the Episcopal Church, but at the time, the church was not ordaining women. She attended Wycliffe College in Toronto and was ordained as a deaconess. She later entered the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine. In 1978, after the Episcopal Church allowed women to be priests, she was the first Canadian nun to become a priest.

Dianne Shapiro, from Voices Found by Marilyn Haskel and Lisa Neufeld Thomas (New York: Church Publishing, 2004)