Date Published:
February 2005

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

Émilie Gamelin

Gamelin, Emilie, née Tavernier (1800-1851), founder and first mother superior of the Sisters of Charity in Montreal, was born at Montreal, on February 19, 1800, the younger daughter of Antoine Tavernier. In 1823 she married Jean-Baptiste Gamelin; but within four years she lost by death her husband and three infant children. In 1828 she opened a refuge in Montreal for the old and infirm; and in 1831, she founded a society of "Ladies of Charity". This became in 1844 the order of Sisters of Charity, of which she was the first mother superior. She died, of cholera, on September 23, 1851. See Vie de Mère Gamelin (Montreal, 1900).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada , Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 7