The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founded in 1737 by Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, a young widow.

History

thumb|upright|Grey Nuns convent in [[Montreal (circa 1880)]]

The congregation 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 in Montreal on 30 October 1738, taking in a small number of destitute persons. On 3 June 1753 the society received a royal sanction, which also transferred to them the rights and privileges previously granted by letters patent in 1694 to the (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 the ('Montreal General Hospital') located outside the city walls. (In the seventeenth century, a general hospital was an institution that took in old people, the ill, and the poor. Medical care was dispensed at the Hôtel-Dieu.)

In 1755 the sisters cared for those stricken during a smallpox epidemic. As the sisters were not cloistered, they could go out to visit the sick. Those assisted included the First Nations people in Oka, who were among the benefactors who later helped rebuild the hospital after a fire in 1765. In 1855, the Grey Nuns were called to Toledo, Ohio, to care for many suffering from cholera. St. Vincent's later became part of Catholic Health Partners.

St. Joseph Hospital was founded in 1906 in Nashua, New Hampshire, by the parish of St. Louis de Gonzague primarily to serve Nashua's French Canadian community. The Grey Nuns began to staff it in 1907. The hospital was dedicated on 1 May 1908, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. The sisters also started a nursing school. In 1938, the parish transferred ownership to the sisters.

In 1983 the Grey Nuns established Covenant Health Systems, a non-profit Catholic regional health care system, to direct, support and conduct their health care, elder care and social service systems throughout New England. In 1996, sponsorship of St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua was transferred from the sisters to Covenant Health Systems.

Participation in the residential school system

The Grey Nuns worked as nurses and teachers in a number of Indian residential schools, as the preferred missionary partners of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who were not allowed to teach girls. insufficient food; The sisters also worked at the Holy Angels Residential School in Fort Chipewyan. The Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Fort Chipewyan Métis Community have hired archaeologists from the University of Alberta to search the grounds of the school for unmarked graves reported by former students. The search began in March 2022.

Other residential schools where the sisters worked include Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School, Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, the residence at Fort Smith, Fort Resolution Indian Residential School,

, the Sisters had not turned over several thousand photos and records which they had promised to return to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. , 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.

Name

Montreal residents mocked the nuns by calling them – a phrase meaning both "the grey women" and "the drunken women", in reference to the colour of their attire and Marguerite d'Youville's late husband, François-Magdeleine You d'Youville (1700–1730), a notorious bootlegger. 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. When a Grey Nun worked as a nurse in a hospital, she usually exchanged her taupe habit for a white one. They wore a bonnet instead of a veil, as that was more practical for everyday work. Several sister communities branched off from the Sisters of Charity of Montreal:

Sisters of Charity of Saint-Hyacinthe

The congregation was founded by Marie-Michel-Archange Thuot (Mother Thuot). She joined the Grey nuns in 1803. She served in the infirmary and pharmacy, and later became mistress of novices. In 1840, Thuot and three other sisters left Montreal to establish a community in the rural farming community of Saint-Hyacinthe, and soon founded a for their health care ministry. As a way to raise funds to support themselves and their ministry, they also took in female pensionnaires.

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." In 1902 the Sisters moved to a larger building that came to be called ('St. Mary's General Hospital'). St. Mary's developed into Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center.

Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart

thumb|Koessler Administration Building at [[D'Youville College]]

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. They founded D'Youville College in Buffalo, New York. In 1966, the mother house moved to Yardley, Pennsylvania. The sisters serve in a variety of ministries in the East Coast states New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts as well as in Georgia and Alaska.

  • the Sisters of Charity of the Hôtel-Dieu of Nicolet (1886), branched off from Saint-Hyacinthe, united with Montreal (1941)
  • the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa (1845), formerly the Grey Nuns of the Cross
  • the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (1926), branched off from Ottawa
  • the Sisters of Charity of Quebec (1849)

The 21st century

thumb|Statue to the Grey Nuns, [[Quebec City]]

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.

Hospitals

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. The Grey Nuns' Hospital building built in 1765 in Montreal was designated a national Historic Site of Canada in 1973 to commemorate the Grey Nuns. In 2011, Grey Nuns Motherhouse, the former motherhouse of the Grey Nuns in Montreal, now part of Concordia University, was also designated a National Historic Site.

Shelters

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 in Winnipeg is still owned by the Grey Nuns; hospitals previously owned, operated, or enlarged by the institute include the former Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary, St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon, and the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in Edmonton. Many of these health care institutions were founded by missionary nuns sent out from convents in Quebec and Ontario.

Classification as religious sisters

Although the institute's informal name contains the word nuns, members are actually classified by the Roman Catholic Church as religious sisters, as they are not cloistered and belong to a congregation, not an order. They no longer wear their distinctive habit and now wear street clothes. The building was subsequently renovated. The Quebec congregation has not recruited any new members since before 2000. Sister Bernadette said the nuns' legacy will live on in other ways.

See also

  • Covenant Health Systems

References

Further reading

  • The Grey Nuns and the Red River Settlement by Dennis King. Toronto: Book Society of Canada, 1980.
  • Mother d'Youville, First Canadian Foundress by Albertine-Ferland Angers. Montreal: Sisters of Charity of Montreal, Grey Nuns, 2000.
  • Grey Nuns of Montreal Home Page
  • Sisters of Charity of Saint-Hyacinthe Home Page
  • Sisters of Charity of Ottawa Home Page
  • Sisters of Charity of Quebec Home Page
  • Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart Home Page
  • Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Home Page
  • Manitoba Historical Society – The Grey Nuns and the Red River Settlement
  • Ward, Sister Mary Elizabeth. "Grey Nuns." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910