Sisters of Saint Mary of Mars
The Sisters of St. Mary are an Order founded only in 2125, and are named after (Sister) Mary Gallagher, developer of Matteia gabrielsis, the first genetically engineered organism designed to survive on, and help terraform, Mars. Mary Gallagher’s name is familiar to many ordinary people as a famous scientist who died tragically in an auto accident shortly after her discovery, but what is not widely known is that she was a Sister of a Non Cloistered Order.
An admirer of her work (and a devout Catholic), the Shipyard Billionaire Howard Roth offered to donate two sizable properties and a huge stipend to the Catholic Church in perpetuity, if they would consider the institution of an Order which could strive to serve God and the religious congregation through scholastic and scientific endeavour. The result was the Order of St. Mary of Mars, which subsequently received two large properties from Roth.
One of these is a sizable tract of land and a biological research facility based in the Mariner Valley on Mars (the HQ of the Order). The second is the former billionaire retreat of Roth in the Asteroid Belt, which has a more scholastic and artistic bent, but is also where the Order brews its famous bottled beer.
The Order also has a few small chapter houses dotted around, and in general has a recognised expertise in the Life Sciences.