Date Published:
July 2008

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

Sisters of the Sacred Heart

Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart was founded in 1817 by a pious parish priest, the Rev. Father Barbe, from the diocese of Vannes, Brittany. It soon became authorized as a religions society, and it was honoured by a royal charter granted by the king of France, Charles X. At present, besides a great number of houses in France, among which is the mother house, the Sisters are estab­lished in England, Belgium, the United States, and Canada. The first Sisters of the Sacred Heart to corne to Canada arrived in Ottawa in 1902. Their services were required by the Oblate Fathers for the manual labour in the St. Joseph Scholasticate. The Sisters also have the care of schools in the dioceses of Ottawa, Mount-Laurier, Montreal, and Pembroke. This Congre­gation has a two-fold aim: first, the education of children, especially in rural schools; second, various works of charity, such as the upkeep of hospitals and orphan homes, visiting the sick in their homes, the direction of domestic economy schools, etc. The sisters are divided into two classes: the chorist sisters and the lay sisters.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Volume VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., pp. 23-24.