‘We keep going until we get to heaven’
It's a sunny spring afternoon at Immigration Square in front of LIUNA Station on James Street North and people walking by are probably wondering what is going on.
Nine women are gathered around a statue of a nun for a short photo shoot.
They are there at my request. I thought it would be a good way to capture the essence of the upcoming 170th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Hamilton.
The statue is a dedication to Mother Martha von Bunning who started it all when she came to the city from Toronto on April 19, 1852. The women standing next to her are sisters who have been carrying on the tradition more recently, and were available for the photo.
The contrast is striking. Mother Martha is in a traditional habit and looks to be in her 20s. The current sisters are in casual clothes and much older, with some in their 80s and 90s. They haven't worn traditional garb since the early 1980s, and it has been many years since someone joined the order in Hamilton.
Much has changed over time, but the legend continues.
Mother Martha (1824-1868) - Foundress and first general Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hamilton" - is remembered in the square because her first task in Hamilton was related to immigration. She, and two other sisters, came in response to an invitation from the vicar general to care for orphaned children of new arrivals, many of whom were from famine-ravaged Ireland.
A lot of Irish children came over and their parents had died," says Sister Lucy Godfrey, who has been with the Sisters of St. Joseph for 58 years. An orphanage was created to take care of them.
Two years after the arrival of Mother Martha, a horrific cholera epidemic broke out. Again, the sisters were called into service. By then, other sisters were beginning to join the order.
Many of the sick and dying were placed in former railway sheds off Barton Street, outside the main section of the downtown.
They did not want them to infect the city. So, the sisters would go down there, and they would try to help. And often what they ended up doing was preparing the dead for burial because nobody else wanted to do it," she says.
Sister Lucy points out the first convent was not far away, at MacNab and Cannon. A sister-run school and orphanage were connected to it.
From there, over the coming decades, the sisters helped lay the foundation of the city's Catholic school system as well as major developments in health care and social service. The legacy can be found at St. Joseph's Hospital on James South and St. Joseph's Villa in Dundas as well as Hamilton's Catholic education system.
Mother Martha's statue symbolizes the beginning of all that. She was such a pioneer, such a brave woman. We like to think her spirit is something that we are trying to live in our lives today," says Sister Lucy.
Before the sisters start to leave, I ask how many are still active in the community. Well, they all are, in varying degrees, they say. Some continue to work full-time in the parish and in other cases they are semi-retired or doing volunteer work after long careers in hospitals, homes for the aged, Catholic education and pastoral care.
Much focus these days is in helping more recent immigrants, with the sisters having been involved in sponsoring countless refugees.
Do they ever fully retire, I wonder.
We keep going until we get to heaven," Sister Kathleen O'Neill says with a smile as she walks away.
The legacy of the Sisters of St. Joseph
Here are some facts and milestones about the Sisters of St. Joseph in time for the 170th anniversary on April 19:
- It's estimated that 500 women have served as Sisters of St. Joseph in Hamilton at various times over the past 170 years. Numbers peaked in the 1960s, with about 300 active sisters at that time. But today there are only 35 in the city.
- The statue of Mother Martha in Immigration Square is one of two in the area. The second is at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, in a section of graves for Sisters of St. Joseph including Mother Martha. Her grave, originally in Toronto, was exhumed in 2002 and her remains brought to the Burlington cemetery, as part of touching ceremony.
- In 1861, in Guelph, the Sisters started the first Catholic Hospital in Hamilton Diocese, a facility now known as St. Joseph's Healthcare.
- In 1879, in Dundas, the Sisters began the House of Providence that is now known as St. Joseph's Villa. More recently it was expanded to include palliative care section known as Margaret's Place Hospice.
- In 1890, in Hamilton, St. Joseph's Hospital started and the facility on James Street South remains one of the biggest health care centres in the city today.
- In 1924, St. Mary's General Hospital and school of nursing in Kitchener was opened in 1924 and St. Joseph's Hospital in Brantford started operations in 1950 (replaced by St. Joseph's Lifecare Centre in 2004).
- In 2012, the Hamilton sisters amalgamated with Sisters of St. Joseph in London, Pembroke and Peterborough, calling themselves the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada. There are 173 current members.
- In 2019, the sisters' sprawling convent on Northcliffe Avenue - near Highways 6 and 403 - was sold to Columbia International College to make into a student residence. The motherhouse' once housed more than 150 sisters. There were only 12 when it closed. Most moved to the Village of Tansley Woods retirement home in Burlington.
Quote
Our concerns today are very much around what is happening in the world today ... care of the earth, reconciliation, racism, homophobia ... All of those issues matter to us. We want to continue to be a neighbour to whoever we encounter and bring a sense of love to people." - Sister Anne Karges.
April 19 Mass
A Mass of Thanksgiving for the Sisters of St. Joseph with Hamilton Diocese Bishop Douglas Crosby will take place April 19 at 2 p.m. at Holy Rosary Church on Plains Road East, Burlington. Limited seating is available. COVID-19 guidelines will be in place. RSVP at patv@csjcanada.org by Sunday, April 10. Live streaming of the Mass will be available at holyrosaryburlington.com.