Date Published:
July 2008

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

Sisters of Charity of Providence

Sisters of Charity of Providence (Montreal). The Institute of the Sisters of Charity of Providence was founded at Montreal, Canada, in 1843, by Bishop Bourget  and the venerated Mother Gamelin, first superior­general of the Institute. The principal end of the Institute is the sanctification of its members by the practice of the vows of religion and the observance of its constitutions, definitely approved on September 12, 1900, by the Holy See. The secondary and specific aim of the Institute is to serve God in the person of the poor, the homeless, and the aged, the sick and the infirm, the mentally afilicted, deaf-mute girls, and orphan children of both sexes, and in giving Christian education from kindergarten to college in its varions schools in Canada and the States, as well as in many Indian missions. The Institute of Providence has grown remarkably strong and vigorous, extending west­ward to the Pacific ocean, as far south as Oakland, California, and as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska, and Fort Ver­milion, Alberta, close to the Arctic circle. It is also in different parts of theeast, and from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to Jersey city, New Jersey, on the Atlantic coast. At present [1948] the Institute has a personnel of 3,542 members, apart from 136 novices in training, both in the eastern and western novitiates of the Institute.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Volume VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 10.