Irish by birth, Margaret Elizabeth Noble was a well- known educationist and promoted the methods of education introduced by Froebel and Pestallozzi. She met Swami Vivekananda in 1890 and the meeting proved a turning point in her life. She joined the Ramakrishna mission and became a nun. Henceforth, she came to be known as Sister Nivedita. She established a school for girls and took part in programmes for uplift of women.
She also worked for promoting national consciousness and criticized the racial policies of the British. Her efforts in organizing relief work during the plague epidemic in 1899 and during the Bengal famine of 1905 deserve special mention. She wrote several articles, two of which are The Master as I Saw Him and The Web of Indian Life.