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Three Catholic Congregations in a Nineteenth-Century Canadian City: Providing Social Services, Claiming Space for Women in Kingston, 1841-1874

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Three Catholic Congregations in a Nineteenth-Century Canadian City: Providing Social Services, Claiming Space for Women in Kingston, 1841-1874 THREE CATHOLIC CONGREGATIONS IN A NINETEENTH-CENTURY CANADIAN CITY: PROVIDING SOCIAL SERVICES, CLAIMING SPACE FOR WOMEN IN KINGSTON, 1841-1874 by Theresa LeBane A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Department of History Carleton University Ottawa, Canada August 13, 2018 © Copyright, 2018, Theresa LeBane ii Abstract This thesis examines three Roman Catholic congregations of women, the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and the Sisters of Providence, and the services they provided between 1841 and 1874 in Kingston, Canada West and Ontario. A careful reading of the personal written records of Kingston’s women religious, informed by gender analysis, reveals their role in the building of hospitals, schools, and orphanages, and their dedication to bettering the lives of the disadvantaged and indigent. These contributions aligned with the larger goals of the provincial government and ecclesiastical authorities. Kingston’s women religious established multiple institutions, faced unspeakable risks to their health, and overcame overt anti-Catholicism in carrying out and expanding the city’s social services. iii Acknowledgements I am indebted to many people for their help, support and encouragement. I could not have finished writing my thesis without the support of family, friends, classmates, and colleagues. I want to express my appreciation to the faculty and staff of the History Department. I particularly want to thank Joan White for all her assistance. I also thank Dr. Norman Hillmer for his words of wisdom, as well as Mallory Pierce, Elise Bigley, and Francesca Brzezicki for their friendship and for reading my early drafts. Archivists Veronica Stienburg of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, Rodney Carter of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and Marie-Josée Morin of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame provided invaluable guidance during my years of research. I would also like to thank Father Dan Ryan for providing access to the Archives of the Archdiocese of Kingston. Special thanks to the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul. My deepest gratitude I reserve for my supervisor, Dr. Susan Whitney, for her unwavering support, endless encouragement, and the countless hours spent discussing and reviewing my chapters. Finally, I dedicate this thesis with love to my long-suffering and ever patient family. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………........ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………….……...iv List of Figures ……………………………………………………….………………........v Introduction………………………………………………………………...……………...1 Chapter I: Whose Vision Would Prevail?: Faith and State Intertwined………………....15 Chapter II: Vowed Women Religious and Their Work ………...…..……...…………....54 Chapter III: Obstacles in Nineteenth-Century Ontario, Real and Imagined………..……80 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...……114 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………........116 v Figures page Figure 1.1 Notice for establishing Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Kingston……………………….2 Figure 2.1 Sr. Claire Latour’s ‘Act of Protestation’ …………………………………….62 Figure 2.2 Sr. Emélie Barbarie’s ‘Act of Protestation’……………………………….….63 Figure 2.3 Lucy McDougal’s record of entrance to the Kingston Hôtel-Dieu……...…...64 Figure 2.4 Caring for typhus victims, Kingston waterfront, 1847…………………….…75 Figure 3.1 Sister Jane Leahy [before 1887] ……………………….…………………...113 1 Introduction If a person had been walking down Brock Street in Kingston, Canada West, on a dark December evening in 1847, she might have chanced upon a young postulant flying out the doors of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph’s monastery. The chimney of the men’s hospital ward was on fire and, dispatched to get help, she ran straight across the street to the Catholic secondary school, college, and seminary, Regiopolis College.1 She rounded up a group of young men and they hurried back together. The hospital’s new wing had been erected over the past year and was still under construction. The men climbed out the highest window and, after clambering onto the roof and the hospital’s unfinished third floor, managed to douse the fire. Taking further precautions, Father Chrisholm shoved his head through a hole in the ceiling to check for sparks in the garret. Without dormer windows, a ladder, or bench, he was forced to climb up the linen shelves until they collapsed beneath him. Before he and the linen tumbled down, however, he managed to ensure that there were no stray embers. It had already been a long year of crises and, exhausted from their exertions battling the typhus epidemic, the nuns were grateful that their patients, staff, and buildings were safe (Fig. 1.1).2 Montréal’s Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, better known as the Hôtel-Dieu nuns, had arrived in Kingston in 1845 to establish a monastery and hospital at the request of Bishops Gaulin and Phelan. They were not the first group of women religious in the city. The Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame had been invited by Bishop Gaulin 1 Margaret Angus, The Old Stones of Kingston: Its Buildings Before 1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966), 48-9. 2 “Typed Transcript of the Annals (in English) – Translation of the Annals of our House of Kingston, 1845 – to –” [translated entries dated 3 February 1891], The Annals and Chronicles of St. Joseph Province, 84.1- 13, St. Joseph Region Archives of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, Kingston [hereafter RHSJ-SJR Archives], 15-16. 2 Fig. 1.1 List of subscribers for the new wing of the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Kingston, dated July 14, 1846. Archives of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, St. Joseph Region, Kingston, 84.5/03.007. 3 to open a school for girls and had arrived in November of 1841. By 1860, Kingston’s subsequent bishop, Edward John Horan, required more sisters to care for the varied needs of the dispossessed. For his diocese, Horan requested Émilie Tavernier Gamelin’s Sisters of Providence, founded less than two decades previously in Montréal. Four sisters took up residence in December of 1861. Legally, they were the Sisters of Charity of the House of Providence, Kingston, but commonly known as the Sisters of Providence.3 This thesis examines three Roman Catholic religious institutes of consecrated women,4 the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and the Sisters of Providence, who established educational and charitable institutions in mid-nineteenth-century Kingston, Canada West.5 This study will explore the type of work the sisters’ performed, how their religious missions intersected with the aims of both the provincial government and ecclesiastical authorities, and how these women religious encountered, and were affected by, obstacles, both real and imagined, between the years 1841 and 1874. These were unique years of nation building in English Canada, and the Catholic Church was determined to play a major part in Canada West’s construction. 3 The congregation legally changed its name to the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul on May 15, 1952, by which name it is currently known. 4 For the purposes of clarity and consistency, ‘religious institutes,’ that is, groups of canonically approved women religious, will be referred to as ‘congregations’ throughout this thesis. Technically, the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph were cloistered nuns, and the Notre-Dame and Sisters of Providence, because their ministry meant they were active in the world, were considered sisters. Again, for the sake of clarity, they will be grouped together as ‘sisters’ or ‘women religious’ unless the discussion centers on the Hôtel- Dieu nuns. In the nineteenth-century, confusion often reigned among the public, and all female religious were referred to as either nuns or sisters, and their homes called convents, nunneries, or monasteries. For a explanation of technical terms used to describe religious life in the Roman Catholic Church, see Michel Thériault, The Institutes of Consecrated Life in Canada From the Beginning of New France up to the Present: Historical Notes and References (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1980), 13–44. 5 Between 1841 and 1867, Canada West formed one half of the Province of Canada, which until 1840 had been Upper Canada. In 1867, Canada West became the Province of Ontario. 4 Catholic sisters helped shape the mix of public and private charitable aid broadly available during this period in Canada’s history.6 In 1841, Kingston was named the new capital of Canada West, and the city’s future appeared bright. The shine quickly faded. The following decades were marked by decline: the loss of the designation as capital in 1844, the weakening shipping industry with the emergence of the railroad, and the loss of residents to Toronto as locals moved in search of job opportunities.7 Coupled with a lack of immigration, growth slowed. In these same years, however, Catholic women religious made a lasting impact on the City of Kingston through their institution building. Sisters and nuns responded to social needs on several fronts: education, healthcare, and a variety of related services. They cared for orphaned children and the elderly, provided financial support to the most economically vulnerable, and visited incarcerated women. Their
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