 Saint Marguerite d'Youville, in the former habit of the institute | |
| Formation | 1738 |
|---|---|
| Type | Religious organization |
| Legal status | active |
| Purpose | Public advocation, education, and network |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec |
Region served |
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Official language | English French |
| Website | www |
The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly calledThe Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as theGrey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadianreligious institute of Roman Catholicreligious sisters, founded in 1737 byMarie-Marguerite d'Youville, a young widow.[1]
Thecongregation was founded when Marguerite d'Youville and three of her friends formed a religious association to care for the poor. They rented a small house inMontreal on 30 October 1738, taking in a small number of destitute persons. On 3 June 1753 the society received aroyal sanction, which also transferred to them the rights and privileges previously granted byletters patent in 1694 to theFrères Hospitaliers de la Croix et de Saint-Joseph (French for 'Hospitaller Brothers of the Cross and of Saint Joseph'), known after their founder as the Frères Charon. At that time they also took over the work of the bankrupt Frères Charon at theHôpital Général de Montréal ('Montreal General Hospital') located outside the city walls. (In the seventeenth century, ageneral hospital was an institution that took in old people, the ill, and the poor. Medical care was dispensed at theHôtel-Dieu.)[2]
In 1755 the sisters cared for those stricken during asmallpox epidemic. As the sisters were notcloistered, they could go out to visit the sick. Those assisted included theFirst Nations people inOka, who were among the benefactors who later helped rebuild the hospital after a fire in 1765.[2]
After 1840 the order rapidly expanded, and over the next 100 years became a major provider of health care and other social services throughoutQuebec,Western andNorthern Canada, and thenorthern United States.[3] In 1855, the Grey Nuns were called toToledo, Ohio, to care for many suffering fromcholera.[4] St. Vincent's later became part ofCatholic Health Partners.
St. Joseph Hospital was founded in 1906 inNashua, New Hampshire, by the parish of St. Louis de Gonzague primarily to serve Nashua'sFrench Canadian community. The Grey Nuns began to staff it in 1907. The hospital was dedicated on 1 May 1908,[5] the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. The sisters also started a nursing school. In 1938, the parish transferred ownership to the sisters.[6]
In 1983 the Grey Nuns establishedCovenant Health Systems, a non-profitCatholic regional health care system, to direct, support and conduct their health care, elder care and social service systems throughout New England.[7] In 1996, sponsorship of St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua was transferred from the sisters to Covenant Health Systems.
The Grey Nuns worked asnurses andteachers in a number ofIndian residential schools, as the preferredmissionary partners of theMissionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,[8]: 30 who were not allowed to teach girls.[8]: 96 The Oblates paid parents to allow their children to attend boarding schools. At the schools, they participated in the effort to remove children from their traditional Indigenous ways of life, in order to "civilize" them.[8]: 92
The main goal of the Oblates and the Grey Nuns was to provide a Catholic education (in competition with schools operated byAnglicans) and to give a limited secular education. These early mission boarding schools never recruited more than a small percentage of the school-aged children in the region.[8]: 96 Though often at odds, theCanadian government and the various religious organizations operating residential schools agreed that Indigenous cultural practices had to be suppressed.[8]: 627
Students at the schools were subjected tophysical andsexual abuse;[9]: 104–107 insufficient food;[9]: 88–89 and being forbidden to speak theirnative languages or engage in their cultural practices.[9]: 4–6 This treatment has been deemedcultural genocide by the final report of theTruth and Reconciliation Commission.[9]: 8 [failed verification]
The sisters worked at one of the most notorious schools,St. Anne's Indian Residential School inFort Albany,Ontario, where a homemadeelectric chair was reportedly used on the children for the amusement of the staff, among other severe abuses. Survivor testimony later sparked a long-runningOntario Provincial Police investigation; two nuns were eventually convicted ofassault for their actions at St Anne's.[10] The sisters also worked at the Holy Angels Residential School inFort Chipewyan. TheMikisew Cree First Nation,Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Fort ChipewyanMétis Community have hiredarchaeologists from theUniversity of Alberta to search the grounds of the school for unmarked graves reported by former students. The search began in March 2022.[11]: 14 [12]
Other residential schools where the sisters worked includeÎle-à-la-Crosse Residential School,[8]: 96 Lac la Biche (Notre Dame des Victoires) Residential School,[8]: 95 St. Albert (Youville) Residential School,[8]: 95 Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School,[8]: ix St. Boniface Residential School,[8]: 690 Assiniboia Indian Residential School,[13]: 241 Shubenacadie Indian Residential School,[8]: 241 Fort Providence Residential School,[8]: 707 Blue Quills Residential School,[14]: 90 the residence atFort Smith,[15]: 50 Fort Resolution Indian Residential School,[15]: 149 andChesterfield Inlet (Turquetil Hall) Residential School.[14]: 439
The Sisters and the Oblates objected to the characterization of their actions during theIRSSA process, stating that they felt many students had positive experiences and that some of their members had been falsely accused.[16]: 168
As of 2018[update], the Sisters had not turned over several thousand photos and records which they had promised to return to theNational Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.[17] As of 2021[update], the Catholic Church as a whole had not issued a formal apology for its role in the residential school system, although some dioceses and orders had issued their own apologies.[18]
Montreal residents mocked the nuns by calling themles grises – a phrase meaning both "the grey women" and "the drunken women", in reference to the colour of their attire andMarguerite d'Youville's late husband, François-Magdeleine You d'Youville (1700–1730), a notoriousbootlegger. Marguerite and her colleagues adopted the particular black and beige dress of their religious institute in 1755; despite a lack of grey colour, they kept the nickname.[19] When a Grey Nun worked as a nurse in a hospital, she usually exchanged hertaupe habit for a white one.[20] They wore abonnet instead of aveil, as that was more practical for everyday work.[2]
Themonastic rule, given to d'Youville and her companions by theSulpician priest Louis Normant de Faradon in 1745, received episcopal sanction in 1754 when Monseigneur de Pontbriant formed the society into an official religious community. This rule forms the basis of the present constitution, which was approved byPope Leo XIII on 30 July 1880. Besides the threevows ofpoverty, chastity, and obedience, the sisters pledge themselves to devote their lives to the service of suffering humanity.[citation needed]
The sisters undertook the first mission by a female religious institute to Western Canada in 1844, when a colony of Grey Nuns left their convent in Montreal and travelled toSt. Boniface, on the shore of theRed River.[21] Several sister communities branched off from the Sisters of Charity of Montreal:
The congregation was founded by Marie-Michel-Archange Thuot (Mother Thuot). She joined the Grey nuns in 1803. She served in the infirmary andpharmacy, and later becamemistress of novices. In 1840, Thuot and three other sisters left Montreal to establish a community in the rural farming community ofSaint-Hyacinthe,[22] and soon founded aHôtel-Dieu for their health care ministry. As a way to raise funds to support themselves and their ministry, they also took in femalepensionnaires.[23]
In response to increased industrialization of the area, in 1864 they founded the workhouse of Saint Geneviève to "procure work for the poor women when they are unable to find any on the outside."[20] The workhouse producedwoollen fabric and soap, and provided employment for ten women, fifteen girls, one man, and three boys. They became a separate pontifical congregation in 1896.
In 1888 the sisters founded the first hospital inLewiston, Maine, called variously "the Sisters' Hospital", "the French Hospital", or "the Catholic Hospital".[24] In 1902 the Sisters moved to a larger building that came to be calledL'Hopital Generale Ste. Marie ('St. Mary's General Hospital'). St. Mary's developed intoSaint Mary's Regional Medical Center.
The only American congregation of Grey Nuns, the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart branched off from the Ottawa congregation in 1921, to establish an independent English-speaking congregation to minister in the United States.[25] They foundedD'Youville College in Buffalo, New York. In 1966, the mother house moved toYardley, Pennsylvania. The sisters serve in a variety of ministries in the East Coast statesNew York,Pennsylvania andMassachusetts as well as inGeorgia andAlaska.
As of 2008 the various Grey Nun branches operate in Canada, the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Haiti, Central African Republic, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic.[26][27]
They once operated a number of major hospitals in Canada; as provincial governments and church, authorities moved to standardize both ownership and operation of hospitals, many of these hospitals passed into the hands of Church corporations (or, in some cases, governmental organizations) and the Grey Nuns changed focus. TheGrey Nuns' Hospital building built in 1765 in Montreal was designated anational Historic Site of Canada in 1973 to commemorate the Grey Nuns.[28] In 2011,Grey Nuns Motherhouse, the formermotherhouse of the Grey Nuns in Montreal, now part ofConcordia University, was also designated a National Historic Site.[29]
They now operate shelters for battered women (with and without children), shelters for women in need, clothing and food dispensaries, centres for the disabled, and some health care facilities. St. Boniface General Hospital inWinnipeg is still owned by the Grey Nuns; hospitals previously owned, operated, or enlarged by the institute include the former Holy Cross Hospital inCalgary,[30]St. Paul's Hospital inSaskatoon,[31] and theGrey Nuns Community Hospital inEdmonton.[32] Many of these health care institutions were founded by missionary nuns sent out from convents in Quebec and Ontario.[32]
Grey Nuns may work with the incarcerated.[27] Some chapters are also dedicated to peace and justice; at least one chapter, theGrey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, has declared its properties anuclear-free zone.[33]
Although the institute's informal name contains the wordnuns, members are actually classified by the Roman Catholic Church asreligious sisters, as they are notcloistered and belong to a congregation, not anorder. They no longer wear their distinctivehabit and now wear street clothes.[27]
In 1993 it was estimated that there were just under 3,000 Grey Nuns in Canada, mainly inQuebec andOntario.[21] In March 2013, the Mother House indowntown Montreal was vacated by its remaining Grey Nuns, after having sold the property toConcordia University in 2005.[34][35] The building was subsequently renovated. TheQuebec congregation has not recruited any new members since before 2000. Sister Bernadette said the nuns' legacy will live on in other ways.[36]
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