Date Published:
April 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Daughters of Wisdom

Daughters of Wisdom. The Congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom (Soeurs de la Sagesse) was founded in 1703 by Louis Marie de Montfort. Today the Congregation counts 5,000 members, distributed among more than 400 houses. Establishments have been founded in Canada, the United States, Belgium, Holland, Italy, England, Denmark, Haiti in the West Indies, Columbia in South America, Shire in the southern part of Africa , Madagascar, and the Belgian Congo. In the first years of his priesthood, Montfort yearned to go as a missionary to Canada. He had some friendly communications with Mgr. de St. Vallier, second bishop of Quebec. In 1734, twenty years after the death of Montfort, the sisters were called by Mgr. Dosquet, bishop of Quebec, to establish themselves in that city, but owing to adverse circumstances that plan miscarried, and it was not until 1883 that the Daughters of Wisdom came to Canada. They then established a novitiate at Our Lady of Lourdes, near Ottawa, accommodating both English and French-speaking recruits. They have two objects, the education of children, and the care of the sick; all other works confided to them must refer to these two. They give all kinds of classical instruction, in parochial schools or high schools, in day schools or boarding schools. They devote themselves to hospitals, and conduct clinics, dispensaries, and working schools, where they give a professional training; they also have taken charge of homes for the blind, crippled, deaf-mute children, etc., and even the care of the lepers is confided to them.

Source  : W. Stewart Wallace, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 180-181.