Religious Leaders

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Religious Leaders         
Marguerite Bourgeoys. Born Troyes, France April 17, 1620. Died January 12, 1700. She Came to Canada as a nun to work in the colony of New France. She would founded the Congregation de Notre-Dame de Montreal to encourage young women to work for their community with Devine guidance. The Sisters taught and set up schools in New France.  Today the order has several thousand members and has expanded their work to the USA and Japan.   Mother Marguerite Bourgeoys was canonized ( declared a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church) in October 1982.
Elizabeth Bruyère Born L'Assomption, Lower Canada March 19, 1818. Died April 5, 1876. In the 1840s Bytown ( Ottawa) was a rough and tumble timber town with little or no social services and no schools for its large French-Canadian Population. It was Sister Elisabeth who, in 1845, answered the call for service. In 1839 she entered the Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général de Montréal. The sisters were commonly known as the Grey Nuns. By March 3, 1845 one of the first bilingual schools in Upper Canada was inaugurated. By May 10 a 10 bed hospital was operating. By June there was organized care for the poor and sick. When an epidemic came in 1847 the services handled over 600 patients and later organized an orphanage to help the some 15 children left destitute. In 1856 the Sisters of Charity of Bytown became independent of the Montreal mother house and by 1876 they had opened some 25 houses to serve in Ontario, Quebec and New York State in the U.S.A.
Sister Ethelberta

née Elsie Burnstein. Born Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 1900. Died March 2, 1988. She took her religious vows in 1923 with the Sisters of Precious Blood. She served her first years in The Netherlands. In 1951 she led her order to Canada and founded St Bernard’s Convalescent Hospital in North York, Ontario. In 1958 the hospital went public and Sister Ethelberta served as hospital administrator until she retired in 1982.

Mary Teresa Dease Born Dublin, Ireland May 7, 1820. Died July 1, 1889. She was sent by her religious order to Canada in 1847. She became Superior-General of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in America. She was the founder of the Institute in Toronto and later in her position as Superior-General she would oversee its growth in Ontario and New York State.
Marguerite Thérèse Lemoine Depins Born Boucherville, New France (Quebec) March 23, 1722. Died June 6, 1792. She was the first regular novice to join the Grey Nuns on July 2, 1751. It was her inheritance that allowed the Grey Nuns to purchase the seigneury of Chateauguay. Upon the death of the founding Mother d'Youville she became the second Mother Superior of the order.
Henrietta Feller née Odin. Born Montagny, Switzerland April 22, 1800. Died March 29, 1868. Married as a young woman she soon found herself a widow. She became strong in her religious feelings and in 1835 she immigrated to Quebec where she was a protestant missionary. In 1938 she established the Baptist mission house and school in Grande Ligne Quebec. She remained in charge of the school and mission until her death. In 1898 her biography was written and published in Philadelphia and in 1876 Memoir of Madam Feller  was published in London, England.
Marie Angèle Gauthier Born February 9, 1828. Died May 25, 1898. A hardworking farmer's daughter she joined the order of the Sisters of St Anne as Sister Marie Angèle. She traveled as one of the first group of religious orders of women to open schools on Vancouver Island. The adventures of her trip to Victoria, British Columbia, were published in 1859. Perhaps more of a legacy than her writings was her teaching. She taught native children many skills including knitting. This skill would be used in Duncan B.C. to make the famous Cowichan sweaters.
Lydia Emelie Gruchy Born Paris, France 1895. She and her family emigrate to Canada to homestead in Saskatchewan. Her brother was studying for the ministry when he was killed in World War l, she decided to study for the ministry and do whatever a woman could do. She graduated with top honours from St Andrew's College, Saskatoon. She worked as a minister's assistant, as women were not allowed to be full ministers. in 1926 she requested ordination and was refused. She would repeat her request every two years. In November 1936 she was ordained at St Andrew's Church, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, becoming the first woman in Canada to be a minister in the United Church of Canada. She continued her work in the church until she retired in 1962.
Barbara Heck née Ruckle Born Ballingrane, Ireland 1734. Died august 17, 1804. She and her husband originally emigrated to the colony of New York in 1760 where she was paramount in establishing the new Methodist religion, including organizing the first Methodist Church in New York City. Loyalists in the American Revolution the family fled to the sanctuary of the colonies in  Canada where once again Mrs. Heck worked to establishing the foundations of her church in the Bay of Quinte area of Ontario.
Jeanne Le Ber Born Montreal, Quebec January 4, 1662. Died October 3, 1714. As a young girl she had a dowry of 50,000 écrus and was the most eligible girl in New France. However, Jeanne decided to live a secluded life for 5 years. On the 24 of June 1685 she took a vow of perpetual seclusion, chastity, and poverty. Because of her social rank she retained an attendant. She gave large financial assistance to the building of a new church and a three floor apartment directly behind the alter became her living quarters. She has been studied and her life used as a character in a modern mystery novel Death du jour.(1998). 
Marie de l'Incarnation. (Marie Guyant) Born Tours, France October 28, 1599. Died April 30, 1672.  She read about Canada in the famous Jesuit Relations and decided it was the place for her. She would arrive in 1639 and found the Ursuline Order of Canada. She became an expert in several native languages and translated several religious books for her native students. 
Lydia Longley. Born Groton, Massachusetts, U.S.A. April 13, 1674. Died July 20, 1758. When she was 20 she was captured by the Abenakis , who were Indian allies of the French during the war against the British. She was taken to Ville Marie (Modern Montreal) where she became accustomed so much to life in New France that she refused to return to the US when captives were exchanged at the end of the war. She embraced the religion of her new home and entered life as a nun in 1695 as Sister Sainte-Madeleine. In a romantic novel, author Helen A. McCarthy called her "the First American Nun". 
Rosanna McCann

Sister Mary Basilia

Born Ireland 1811. Died October 27, 1870. Sister Mary Basilia of the Sisters of Charity arrived in Halifax in 1849to open the St Mary’s Girls School with 200 girls registered for free education. In 1850 the Board of School Commissions for the area recorded 500 students at the School. Sister Mary Basilia was also concerned with the adult illiteracy rate and established night classes for adults. At the same time she also cared for 20 orphans of immigrants who had died of ship fever during the strenuous ocean crossing. By 1854 St Mary’s Orphan Asylum had 16 youth under its care. She would become the first Mother Superior of the Canadian headquarters of the Sisters of Charity which was the only English speaking congregation of religious sisters in Canada. Today over 1400 sisters continue to serve across Canada. Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. X p 476-77.

Mother Marie-Rose. (Elalie Durocher).  Born October 6, 1811. Died October 6, 1849.  She was the founder of a local community of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary which is a teaching order that served in rural Lower Canada (now Quebec) In 1982 Pope John Paul II Beatified Mother Marie-Rose, one of the steps to having someone declared a Saint.
Marie Morin. Born March 19, 1649. She took her vows as a nun on October 27, 1671. She was the first Canadian born woman to become a religious sister. She would become bursar and superior of the Hospitalièrs of Montreal. She was also one of the first women writers in New France. She wrote the annals of the Hotel Dieu (1697-1725) and her own memoirs. She was a heroic woman, a true product of the early days of New France.
Aimee Semple McPherson. (née Kennedy). Born Ingersoll, Ontario October 9, 1890. Died September 27, 1944. She was an evangelist. She opened,  in the U.S.A., the Angelus Temple of the Four Square Gospel for 1.25 million dollars! That was a lot of money in 1918! In her day, she was the most publicized revivalist in the world.
Mother Marie Anne Paquet Born Quebec September 27, 1755. Died January 25, 1831. She took the name de Saint Olivier when she entered the novitiate of the Ursuline sisters on March 12, 1772. She would serve three terms as Superior. During one of her terms an 1806 fire destroyed the convent. She remained on site until she had gained enough support to have the convent rebuild. During her tenure the sisters opened boarding schools, day schools and hospitals for the insane. They also expanded to Boston and New Orleans in the United States.
Mother Marie-Léone (Elodie) Paradis Born L'Acadie, Lower Canada May 12, 1840. Died May 3, 1912. In 1854, at the age of 14 she presented herself at a convent near Montreal. In August 1857 she took her vows under the name of Sister Marie-de-Saint-Léon. She served in Quebec, New York and Michigan before finding herself in Acadia where in 1874 she was chosen to direct a group of novices in New Brunswick. The Holy Cross Fathers in the region were desperate for help to educate the Acadians of the region. They could not afford to pay lay teachers. This energetic and devoted woman is credited with infusing energies and saving the Acadian culture in the region. Returning to Quebec in 1895 she sought support and recognition for her order of Little Sisters of the Holy Family, which would help priest with educational needs. . Official recognition came in 1896. Elodie Paradis was beautified in Montreal on September 11, 1984, the first to be done on Canadian soil by Pope John Paul ll during his Canadian visit.
Mother Joseph (Esther) Pariseau Born Saint-Martin (Laval) Lower Canada (Quebec) April 16, 1823. Died January 1902. In December 1843 she entered the Sisters of Providence in Montreal and volunteered with for others to be a missionary in the Washington and Canada western territories. She would be the power behind the establishment of some 10 schools, 2 orphanages, 15 hospitals, an asylum and home for the aged. In 1866 she was in charge of building and financing missions in the Canadian and American West. She would set on on "begging tours" in the Canadian and American west to finance the institutions that the order would build. Because of her contribution in designing and building institutions she is considered to be one of the first architects in the northwest and is also recognized as an early artisan who used native northwest woods. The state of Washington gave her national prominence in 1980 when her statue was placed in Statuary Hall in Washington D.C., as an historic leader of Washington State. She is the fifth woman and the first Catholic sister represented in the United States gallery of "first citizens."
Florence Storgoff Born Canora, Saskatchewan 1908. Died September 11, 1964. She married and moved a bride to a Doukabor Colony In British Columbia. The Doukabor's were a religions sect who believe in a form of communal living and whose founders in Canada had emigrated from persecution in Russia. Storgoff became an active religious protestor against what she perceived as offensive government regulations. Both she and her husband were sent to a special Doukabor living compound on Pier's Island near Victoria, British Columbia. The Canadian government had set up the living compound as a result of the Doukabor protests which were considered a danger not only to the group themselves but to the Canadian public in general. Florence soon became an acknowledged leader of the Sons of Freedom Doukabor group. For what she believed to be her religious beliefs, she would be arrested, charged and sentenced and spend three years in the Kingston penitentiary for women for arson. In 1963 she led some 900 followers to the Lower British Columbia mainland. 400 of the protestors camped out at Agassiz Mountain Prison, protesting the arrest of fellow Doukabors.
Kateri Tekawitha.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Florence Li Tim-Oi Born Hong Kong May 5, 1907. Died February 6, 1992. She began her ministry with the Anglican Church in Hong Kong. In 1944 she became the frist woman to be ordained in the Anglican communion. Although there was support for her in her own diocese there was great pressure and protest against her ministry. She relinquished the title and role of priest. For the next 39 years she continued to serve without any bitterness to her church. In 1983 she immigrated to Canada and was appointed an honourary assistant at St John's Chinese congregation in St Mathew's parish in Toronto. Times had changed and the Anglican Church of Canada of the mid 1980's now approved the ordination of women. In 1984, after a 40 year gap in time, Florence was reinstated as a priest in her church. The university of Waterloo has created the Florence Li Tim-Oi Memorial Award for students in social work with the elderly. The University will ope a Resource Centre and Archives in her name to house her personal archives.
Esther Wheelwright. Born Wells Massachusetts (now Maine), U.S.A. April 10, 1696. Died November 28, 1780.  Born to a Congregationalist protestant family, she would be re-baptized as Marie-Joseph dite L'Enfant-Jésus when she became a nun in Quebec. She was kidnapped by the Indian allies of the French who were at war against the British. The French missionaries introduced her to the Catholic Faith. Her family tried to obtain her return home but there were too many barriers and the girl was placed in a school run by the Ursuline Sisters. She decided to become an nun and refused to return to her home. She would become the Mother Superior and maintain good relations between the Ursuline and the new British authorities after the fall of Quebec. She helped her religious community to become strong through 20 of its most difficult years. 
Lois Miriam Wilson. (née Freeman) Born Winnipeg, Manitoba April 8, 1927. After 15 years as a homemaker she became an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada. In 1976 she became first woman president of the Canadian Council of Churches, and in 1980 she was appointed the first woman to the top position of Moderator of the United Church. She is a member of the Order of Canada and has received the Pearson Peace Prize and the World Federalist Peace Award.
Marie Marguerite d'Youville. (née  Dufrost de Lajemerais) Born Varennes, Quebec October 15, 1701.  Died December 23, 1771.  She was a daughter of one of the great families of New France. She was married in 1712, she was the mother of two children, and  became . widowed in 1730. By 1742 both sons had become priests and Marguerite worked to ease the plight of the poor. She was joined by other women and their work extended to the running of the Hôpital Générale. The group of tireless workers would eventually become a religious order known as the Grey Nuns. Marguerite was described as a remarkable woman who was courageous and processed remarkable administrative talent. 
   
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