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Mother Emilie Gamelin, foundress of the Sisters of
Providence, lived in Montreal from 1800 to 1851. When
she was a child, her parents taught her to help those
who were needy or suffering. Her own life taught her,
too, what it was to be needy and suffering; she lost
both her parents when she was very young and had to rely
on the charity of relatives for her care and education.
She had a happy and prosperous marriage, but her husband
died after only four years, and her three children died,
too, as infants. The young widow put all her energy and
finances into helping the poor, sick and oppressed. She
organized with other lay women to form an organization,
the Ladies of Charity, to care for the sick poor, to
visit political prisoners and to provide a home for
orphans and homeless elderly women. Needy people of all
sorts flocked to her for help.
The bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget, founded a
community of Sisters in 1843 so that Emilie Gamelin's
works of charity would continue even after her death.
Emilie also joined this group and became the foundress
of the Sisters of Providence. "Sisters of Providence"
was the name the people gave them, because they were
very poor and they relied on God's Providence (God's
loving care) to provide what they needed to help the
people. Everywhere the Sisters went they praised God's
Providence and taught others to rely on God, too.
Bishop Bourget told the Sisters of Providence that it
was their calling to meet needs that were not being met
by others, so they were open to do all they could in
response to the multiple needs of the poor. In pioneer
days, when there was almost no public provision for
basic services in health care, education, child care,
and what we would today call social services, the
Sisters had to refuse many more requests than they could
possibly accept.
It was only a few years before people in other areas
began to ask for Sisters of Providence. The Sisters were
asked to help with many different needs, such as care of
the sick, care of orphans, the elderly and the homeless
and the education of children. Most of the Sisters' work
was done in frontier areas where other people were not
available for this work or not willing to go
there--especially if it meant working for no salary, as
the Sisters did for decades.
The first mission of the Sisters of Providence in the
Canadian West was Saint Mary's Hospital, New
Westminster, B.C., which has been serving the sick in
that area since 1886. Their works in the Canadian West
spread rapidly to the prairie provinces and the Yukon.
Again, they were called on for every need: education,
child care, care of the elderly and the homeless, health
care and care in the home.
Providence institutional ministries till the 1940's (and
even later in the more isolated missions) were quite
eclectic, that is, they met many needs. A hospital, for
instance, might also take in old people and orphans and
look after them for years, and a residential school
might also take in old people and set aside a place to
care for the sick. It was quite usual for a Sister to
carry out a number of different ministries according to
the needs to be met. In common with other pioneers, the
Sisters learned much on the job and used all their
courage and inventiveness to do the best that they
could.
The Sisters served mostly in rural areas, where it was
very difficult to get qualified help in their work.
Besides carrying huge workloads, the Sisters had very
little to work with. Their early letters home were
"begging letters" asking for medicine and clothing for
their boarders and patients and for other people who
came for help. They asked for school supplies, toys and
musical instruments for their pupils, and asked for
basic supplies like oil for lamps and cloth to make
clothing for the needy. And when the barges came with
crates of donations, the Sisters and the children would
gather round to gasp and wonder and sometimes weep with
joy at the things they received. The Sisters also
organized annual begging trips in order to get money to
maintain the institutions they operated for the care of
the aged, the homeless and the sick.
The first Sisters of Providence in the West were French
Canadian. They were quickly joined by young women from
the West, of many ethnic backgrounds and speaking a
variety of languages. They had some very important
things in common: a spirit of adventure, a trust in
Providence, a desire to help others, and the call to let
other things go to follow Jesus.
It was during World War II that the social safety net
which is now part of our national identity really took
shape. Today Canadians take it for granted that it is a
public responsibility to provide help for our citizens'
most basic needs. Between 1950 and the 1980's most of
the Providence institutions and works were taken on by
the public through government at one level or another.
The Sisters of Providence now look to new horizons such
as palliative care, home care, and ways to combat family
violence. Like Mother Emilie Gamelin, they keep trying
to see with a larger vision and to dare with a larger
heart.
To learn more about the Sisters of Providence, please
contact us!
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