Elizabeth McAlister

Elizabeth McAlister (born November 17, 1939 She and her twin sister Katherine had a sheltered upbringing and attended Lacordaire Academy. Following graduation, the sisters attended Marymount College, Tarrytown. During her sophomore year at Marymount College, McAlister, still Maureen, entered the novitiate of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM). In June 1961, she became Sister Elizabeth McAlister. who came to speak and demonstrate in Tarrytown, New York. although there are accounts that Berrigan and McAlister moved in the same circles from 1964, on. McAlister and Berrigan communicated via a fellow inmate, Boyd Douglas, who was allowed furlough for work release.

Excommunication and marriage Berrigan had spoken and written about the importance of celibacy to activists, but abandoned his previous position against romantic entanglements for McAlister. McAlister and Berrigan were married (witnessed commitment) in January 1972 while Berrigan was in prison. though their excommunication was later lifted. McAlister had three children with Berrigan: Frida, Jerry, and Kate. McAlister and Berrigan continued their activism, serving jail time for their civil disobedience. During their twenty-nine year marriage, Berrigan and McAlister spent a total of eleven years separated by prison.

Jonah House and later life McAlister and Berrigan founded Jonah House in 1973. Called a resistance community Jonah House was a commune, with the Berrigan-McAlister family living in the basement of the Baltimore row house. They raised their three children there, with the help of the other activists in the community.

DePaul University Special Collections and Archives holds collections of papers and ephemera, donated by Berrigan family members and friends. These collections include news clippings related to McAlister's life and protest actions, as well as personal letters written by McAlister. The Berrigan Library includes McAlister's personal books, some annotated in her hand.

Kings Bay plowshares action at Trident nuclear submarine base

On April 4, 2018, McAlister and six other people collectively known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay and performed symbolic acts of disarmament. October 24, 2019, McAlister was convicted on four counts in federal court in Brunswick, GA for entering and holding a symbolic disarming of the Trident submarine's nuclear weapons. Other defendants were Clare Grady, Martha Hennessey (Founder of the Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day's granddaughter), Carmen Trotta, Patrick O'Neill, Fr. Steve Kelly, SJ, and Mark Colville. McAlister was sentenced in June 2020 to time served, probation and restitution.