Mary Nona McGreal, OP Center for Dominican Historical Studies

Sister Mary Nona McGreal, OP (1914-2013) was a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister and Vicaress, graduate of Rosary College, President of Edgewood College, scholar, and leader in the collaborative Dominican community. Her early work concerned pedagogical methods and Catholic social teaching, and her later life focused on the history of the Order of Preachers in the United States, especially as a collaborative enterprise.

In 1977, Sr. Nona envisioned a center for the study of the history of the Dominican Family in the United States. In 2008, Dominican University established the Mary Nona McGreal, OP Center for Dominican Historical Studies as the formal home of Project OPUS. Sr. Nona’s vision became a reality because she firmly believed: “For the sake of present and future service to the church, there is a need to know the history of the Dominican family on mission together.”

• 1982: The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa voted at the 17th General Chapter to establish a Study Center and formed a commission to solicit ideas concerning its purpose and location
• 1984: Report of study commission concerning sisters’ responses; Sister Mary Nona McGreal, OP assigned as coordinator.
• 1984: Study Conferences for U.S. Dominicans, archivists, historians and congregation secretaries sponsored by Project OPUS and the Parable Conference for Dominican Life and Mission. Dominican friars, nuns, sisters, laity and the DLC supported conferences known as In Our Keeping.
• 1985: Dominicans of the United States invited to participate in historical research at the new center, located at St. Martin de Porres Parish, 5082 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. Early responses came from Sisters of Akron, Newburgh, Grand Rapids, Adrian, and  Friars of St. Albert and St. Joseph Provinces
• 1985: Documentary gathering; research for Project OPUS: History of the Order of Preachers in the United States begins
• 1989: OPUS officially sponsored the Dominican Leadership Conference.
• 1994: Publication of Friar in the Wilderness: Edward Dominic Fenwick, OP, by Sr. Loretta Petit, OP.
• 2000: Publication of Dominicans at Home in a Young Nation: 1786–1865 Vol. I of The Order of Preachers in the United States: A Family History.
• 2007: Project OPUS relocates to the Mary Nona McGreal, OP Center for Dominican Historical Studies at Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois
• 2009: The McGreal Center becomes a part of Dominican University and begins acquiring archival collections, marking the transition to archival repository
• 2020: Volume II, Preaching with Their Lives: Dominicans on Mission after 1850 is published
• 2024: Century & Consumer Buildings in Downtown Chicago approved for possible Chicago Collaborative Archives Center, in part through McGreal Center’s advocacy