The Novice in the Sewing Room
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Muriel Black entered the Sisters of Providence as a postulant in August 1950 and received the Habit in March 1951. Sister Black made first profession in August 1952 taking the religious name Sister Stella Maris. As a novice, Sister Black, as she was known in the novitiate, wrote several humorous articles for the Guardian magazine about life as a novice. The Guardian was a children’s magazine published monthly by...
Campaign for Oxygen in Carabayllo
Persons line up for 2-3 days in order to refill oxygen tanks at inflated prices for covid-19 patients. The Marillac Mission Fund has contributed $10,000 US to this campaign for oxygen in Carabayllo, Peru.BY SISTER SARA JIMENEZ ANGULO & CARMEN ALOMIA GUIA Sister Sara Jiménez Angulo: On Sunday August 16, 2020, the Peruvian Associates met virtually and during the meeting Providence Associate and Public Health nurse, Lourdes Alvarez made a...
Learning Home Economics
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Sister Mary Anita taught Grade 7 Home Economics from 1954 to 1958 at St. Michael’s Academy in Belleville, Ontario. Here are a few photos of her students during those years.
A Summer Outing
A vintage postcard of the Varuna, a passenger steamboat that plied the Bay of Quinte from 1880 to the 1920s.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST A lovely summer excursion by two Sisters in Trenton to Lake on the Mountain near Picton, as described in the Annals of St. Peter’s Convent, Trenton: August 29, 1906 - Upon a kind invitation extended by Miss L. Coleman to Sister Superior and Sister M. Stanislaus some weeks ago, the latter, accompanied by...
Looking Back to the Smallpox Epidemic of 1879
Postcard of Mill Street, Deseronto, ca.1900. Courtesy of the Deseronto Archives.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The COVID-19 crisis has been likened to the 1918 Flu epidemic; yet, if we look in the Archives there are also many similarities with smaller localized epidemics of the past. In September 1879, the Sisters of Providence were asked to nurse smallpox patients in Mill Point (later renamed Deseronto). Here is an abridged extract from the...
Celebrating Jubilees During a Pandemic
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVISTCOVID-19 is not the only pandemic in the Sisters of Providence’s history to prevent Jubilees from being celebrated. Historically jubilees were not celebrated altogether annually in June the way they are now. Instead they were celebrated throughout the year as the anniversaries occurred.Sister Mary Aloyisus (left) and Sister Mary Stanislaus (right) were blood sisters who entered the congregation on the same day,...
St. Michael’s Band, Belleville
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST St. Michael’s Band, a rhythm band, was formed in 1934 in Belleville by Sister Mary Mercedes. The students were originally recruited from Grade 1 at St. Michael’s Academy and many of the same children stayed in the band into their high school years. The band played for the King George V and Queen Elizabeth (who we know as the Queen mother) outside St. Mary’s Cathedral during the royal visit to Kingston in 1939....
JPIC Committee goes Virtual
The JPIC Committee meeting held using Zoom video conferencing.BY BRIDGET DOHERTY, JPIC DIRECTOR “The Gospel, our Church’s social justice teachings, the spirit of Vatican II, the congregational constitutions, charism and Mission Statements repeatedly urge us to respond to the needs of the times.” This is how the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Office’s Committee mandate begins. We are called to respond to the needs of the...
Provident Easter planning during pandemic
Good Friday reading of “The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ” according to John. From left: Barbara Baker, Providence Associate, and Sisters of Providence Frances O’Brien and Jeannette Filthaut.BY ANN BONIFERRO PA, DIRECTOR OF LITURGICAL MUSIC, AND ASSISTANT TO LITURGY OFFICE Planning the Triduum liturgies is always a creative process, but this year required more innovation than usual as we adapted to the ever-changing challenges of COVID-19....
Remembering the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
St. Mark’s Convent in Prescott, OntarioBY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The Fall of 1918 was a tumultuous time as the First World War wasn’t over yet, but soldiers were starting to arrive home from Europe bringing with them an unwelcome guest – the Spanish Influenza. In Ontario alone, there were 300,000 cases of the flu and approximately 10,000 people died. The majority of those who died were previously healthy adults between the ages of 20 and...
Women in Science Day
Sr. Mary Cornelia in November 1947 in the lab at Providence Hospital Moose Jaw, SKBY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST February 11th was the International Day of Women and Girls in Science Day. Sr. Mary Cornelia Schauenberg worked in science her entire career, as the Director of the Clinical Laboratory at Providence Hospital in Moose Jaw from 1937 to 1979. Here is an extract from her obituary: After receiving her laboratory technologist...
Spotlight on Peruvian Associates
BY SISTER GAYLE DESARMIA From November 27 to December 13, 2019, Associate Wen Bogues and I travelled to Peru to visit the Sisters and Associates in Carabayllo. A highlight of the time in Peru was the opportunity to visit several Peruvian Associates in their places of work and witness their ministry to those in need.The school where Providence Associate Hector Reyes is the Principal. Hector is standing at the back of the classroom next to the...
Canadian Peruvian Encounter
Carmen Alomía Guía, Coordinator of Providence Associations in Peru with Canadian Providence Associate Wen Bogues.BY WEN BOGUES, PROVIDENCE ASSOCIATE What a privilege it was to be the Associate who would accompany Sister Gayle Desarmia to Peru. I came to believe it was my most spiritually satisfying journey to date. When I arrived in the wee hours of the morning, the taxi ride from the airport to the Sisters’ home in El Progreso went through a...
A Special Anniversary
Sister Rose-Marie BokenfohrBY SISTER GAYLE DESARMIA Friday, November 29, 2019 marked the 50th Anniversary of the Health Centre in El Progreso, Carabayllo. The Director of the Centre, Doctor Valverde, had invited Sisters Rose-Marie Bokenfohr, Sara Jiménez, Gayle Desarmia and Associate Wen Bogues to attend the anniversary celebration. It began at noon with a Mass. Both Sisters Rose-Marie and Sara were invited to sit at the head table for the...
Sowing Hope for the Planet
Pope Francis has called for an ecological conversion, asking us “to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and to discover what each of us can do about it.” Laudato Si #19 The Congregational Liturgy Committee answered this call and supported the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) Sowing Hope for the Planet campaign. The committee organized an event on Climate Change...
Housing and climate change
This is a shortened version of the article published in Horizons, a publication of Queen’s Department of Family Physicians Global Health Program. Tara Kainer is employed in the Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Office of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul and a member of Kingston’s Task Force on Housing.Tara Kainer during one of the weekly Friday Vigils held by the JPIC ministry of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent...
Printing Room Museum closes
Final open house of the Printing Room Museum on August 22, 2019.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The Printing Room Museum at Providence Manor closed this fall. The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul ran a print shop from 1897 until 1989. Over the course of its history, the printing room produced two magazines, congregational material and commercial work such as dental charts, business cards, invitations, etc. When the Printing office...
Providence Archivists get together!
Left to Right: Veronica Stienburg, Archivist of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, Kingston; Phyllis Ladd, Archivist of the Sisters of Providence Holyoke; Marie-Claude Béland, Sisters of Providence, Montreal. Photo: Nadia Bertoluci.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The Sisters of Providence in Montreal were founded by Emilie Gamelin in 1843. In 1861 four Sisters of Providence began a new congregation in Kingston, now known as the...
Coming home by leaving home
Sister Jeannette Filthaut returned to Providence Motherhouse this Fall after many years of ministry in Western Canada. She wrote about her experiences in a poetic style.BY SISTER JEANNETTE FILTHAUT Sixteen years at home in the west (2003-2019) These days were some of the challenging best! Nine years after leadership – a creative sabbatical on Salt Spring Island With hiking, basketry, painting, Tai Chi – Island Rain forest was truly...
ALG Conference in Kentucky
Participants in the 2019 ALG conference. Photo courtesy of WPC.BY VALERIE KELLY, PROVIDENCE ASSOCIATE The five of us (Ann Boniferro, Regina Lannon, Barbara Baker, Carol Groten & Valerie Kelly) started our drive to Kentucky Monday, Sept. 16 with a prayer for safe travel to our Lady of the Highway. We arrived and settled into St. Anne’s Retreat Centre, once St. Anne’s Convent of the Sisters of Divine Mercy. The convent, retreat center, and...