Date Published:

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

Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Hyacinthe

Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Hyacinthe. This Institute was founded on September 12, 1877, by Mgr. Louis Zéphirin Moreau, fourth bishop of St. Hyacinthe. At the very beginning of his episcopate, this saintly bishop had turned his attention to the foundation of a teaching institution under whose care a sound Christian education would be given to the children of his diocese. A small school-house in the village of Providence, in the suburbs of the city, was the cradle of the new order. Here four young ladies consecrated themselves to the service of God, and were accepted as teachers. To-day, the Institute comprises 36 parochial schools in the diocese of St. Hyacinthe, 4 industrial Indian schools and 6 parochial schools in western Canada, and a day-school in the state of New Hampshire. In 1881, the little school-house being insufficient, the Sisters took possession of a larger building near the cathedral, and finally, twelve years later, a mother-house waserected for the Community. There are now 622 professed sisters, 46 novices, and 72 juvenates, and these have 4,100 pupils under their direction. Like

all religious, the Sisters of St. Joseph have specially in view their own perfection, without neglecting to give themselves up to works of apostleship; outside their teaching hours, they visit the sick and assist the dying in the localities where they have schools; consequently, their time is spent in prayer, study, and manual works. The Institute was canonically erected on March 19, 1880, and civil incorporation was granted on June 30, 1881. It has two classes of members. The first class of Sisters are possessors of professional diplomas, and are especially devoted to teaching; the other sisters share in the missionary life by domestic care of their respective religious houses and by devoting themselves to the service of the altar. All the members, however, unite in one family under the same rule, and wear the same habit.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Volume VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 18.