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^v. Father P. Duchaussois, O.M.L
THE LIBRARY
The Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education
Toronto, Canada
ri«
LIBRARY I
DEC 2 1971
T'!E
FOR ST
iJDlES \H EDUCATION
/
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
THE GREY NUNS IN
THE FAR NORTH
(1867-1917)
By
Rev. Father P. DUCHAUSSOIS, O.M.I. .
"Uhose women who have laboured with us in (he Gospel.
—{'Phil. IV. 3.)
McClelland & stewart
publishers :: toronto
Cum Permissu Superiorum
H. GRANDIN, O.M.I.
PROVINCIAL OF ALBERTA- SASKATCHEWAN
Imprimatur
N. McNEIL
ARCHBISHOP OF TORONTO
6 January, 1919
COPYRIGHT, C'ANAD.A. 1919
By McCLKLLAND & STKWART, LIMIl'KD
TORONTO
CONTENTS
Page
Pref'atory Letter 7
Introduction . . . . . . .11
Chapter I. — Madame d'Youville and Her Work.
Her Ancestry, Youth and Marriage — Founding of
the ReHgious Institute of the Grey Nuns, Montreal,
1738 — i«She takes charge of the Hospital of Ville-
Marie, 1747 — The Hospital Burned — Death of Madame
d'Youville — Branches of the Institute established . 13
Chapter H. — "Stepping Westward": The Red
River (1844).
The Grey Nuns answer the call to the Red River —
The journey to the West — Trials and hardships at St.
Boniface . . . . . . . .29
Chapter III. — Further West and North.
Death of Bishop Provencher — Missions of Lake Ste.
Anne and St. Albert — Trying journey and experiences
at He a la Crosse — Lac La Biche (1859-62) — Conditions
among the Indians . . . ... .43
Chapter IV. — The Far North Indeed!
Grey Nuns asked to go from Montreal to Fort Provi-
dence on the Mackenzie River — Extent of the Macken-
zie district — Tribes of Indians and their character —
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Page
Difficulty of sustaining the convents — How they were
supported — Food and supplies, how secured — Dangers
of travel ........ 61
Chapter V. — The Sacred Heart Hospital, Fort
Providence (1867-1917).
Founding of Providence Mission — Early hardships
— Journey of the Sisters from St. Boniface — Great
difficulties of travel — Arrival at Fort Providence —
Incidents of dangers of northern travel — Barbaric prac-
tices of the Indians — Stories of Indian children — The
care of the sick — Agriculture in the far north — Disas-
ters to crops — Orders to withdraw from the Mission —
Delay and countermanding of order — Golden Jubilee
and Banquet ........ 86
Chapter. — AT. The Convent of the Holy Angels,
Nativity INIission, Lake Athabaska (1874).
History and description of Nativity Mission — New
convent founded at Lake Athabaska — Great hardships
and privation ". . . . . . .145
Chapter VII. — St. Joseph's Hospice, Fort Resolu-
tion, Great Slave Lake (1903).
Arrival of Grey Xuns before convent is built for
them — Completion of the Hospice — Difficulties of secur-
ing food ........ 163
Chapter VIII. — New Foundations.
Fort Smith — Hospital and school established — Fort
Simpson — Indian agency established — Hospital — Mac-
CONTENTS
Page
Murray — The Eskimos — Murder of Fathers Le Roux
and Rouviere.
Chapter IX. — The Sources of Devotedness.
Zeal and faith of the Sisters — Health in spite of
poor diet and hardships — Happiness under all condi-
tions — Service and sacrifice — Consolation of the Holy
Communion — The statue of Lourdes— Providential aid
— Anxiety of the Sisters to serve in the far north —
Visit of the Mother General — Play given by Indian
children 200
Chapter X. — Their Fruits.
Revolution of Indian ideas concerning Women —
Care of the sick — Transformation by Religious teach-
ing — Excellence of school training given to the children
— Papers published by the Grey Nuns in the north —
Interesting stories of Indian charges of the Sisters . 233
Epilogue — •
A review of the lives of the Grey Nuns who founded
the Sacred Heart Hospital at Fort Providence . . 266
Appendix — •
The main works held presently, both in Canada and
the United States, by the five great families of the
Grey Nuns founded by the Venerable Mother d' Youville 277
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
V'ery Reverend AIother, M. A. Piche ... 6
Venerable IMother d'Youvilee . . . .18
V^isiTiNG THE Poor in the Far North . . .34
Mgr. a. Tache, O.M.I 44
The Present Community oe St. Albert . . 48
Right Reverend Bishop E. Grou.\rd, o.m.i., d.d. . 64
A Camp oe "Slaves" Indians . . . .67
Fishing Through Holes in the Ice . . .79
Aeter the Catch 83
The Fort Providence Catholic Mission . . 88
Holy Mass in a Tent 95
Passing Through Thousands oe Rocks . . 100
Indians and Hale-Breeds Towing a Barge . . 104
Leaping A Cascade on Athabaska River . . 109
Embarking at Fort Smith, in 1917 . . .113
A Group of Orphax Girls, in the Early Days . 120
Three Sisters of the Hare-Skins Tribe . . 124
In the Fields, Fort Providence . . . .130
The First Convent at Fort Providence (1867) . 136
The Convent of Fort Providence (1917), Inauga-
RATED in 1899 138
Boating on the Mackenzie, Fort Providence . 142
Community of the Holy Angels (1917), Lake
Athabaska . . . . . . .150
Mission of the Nativity, Lake Athabaska (1917) 155
Ready? ......... 159
ILLUSTRATIONS
Pagr
Fort Resolution (Grkat Slave Lake) in Summer
Time 163
Right Reverend Bishop Gabriel Breynat, o.m.i.,
D.D. ........ 165
Little Dog-Ribs Indians at Play .... 169
Saint Joseph Convent and School, Great Slave
Lake 174
At Fort Smith in 1917 180
At Day School, in Fort Smith .... 183
A Group oe Missionary Sisters of Mackenzie,
1916 190
An Eskimo Family oe the Barren Land (Their
Summer Camp) . . . . . • . 195
His Grace Bishop Breynat, o.m.i. . . . . 198
Orphan Boys Cutting Wood Supply . . . 204
The Sewing Class . . . . . . .211
"Scows" At Anchor on the Athabaska River . 225
A Lesson in Charity . . • . . ■ . . 236
The Study Hall at St. Joseph School, Fort Reso-
lution, Great Slave Lake .... 240
The League of the Sacred Heart, Fort Resolu'tion 245
Children of Mary, Fort Resolution , . . 248
Louis ......... 258
Christina ........ 263
Sister Domithilda (1919) 269
Rev. Mother Ward (1919) 271
Map of the Missions of the Exreme North . 280
The Mother House of the Grey Nuns at Mont-
real ........ 287
Very Reverend :\Iother. M A. Piche,
Present Superior General of The Grey
Nuns of ^lontreal.
PREFATORY LETTER
Addressed to Reverend Mother Piche, Mother General of
the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) of the General Hospital
of Montreal.
Fort Providence, Mackenzie River,
N.W. Territories, August 28th, 1917. *
LJ.C. & M.I.
Dear Reverend Mother, —
Fifty years ago this very day, five of the
spiritual daughters of the Venerable Mother
d'Youville reached Fort Providence. They had
left Montreal for this wild north land of ours on
September 17, 1866, in order to devote their lives
to the religious instruction and education of the
poor Indians of the far North. Their convent
here they called Sacred Heart Hospital, as if to
show that all the ills of humanity would claim their
care.
We cannot sound the depths of the designs of
Divine Providence. We cannot tell why these poor
Indians, the disinherited ones of the earth, living
on its uttermost borders, were so long left without
7
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
having the Gospel preached to them. But we may
lawfully take notice of the fact that God at length
chose, for the work of their civilization, a religious
Society whose Founder, Bishop de Mazenod, with
his last breath, recommended to his disciples, along
with charity, zeal in preaching the Gospel to the
poor. Was it not in the right order of things that
such missionary preachers should, amid their self-
denying labours, find valiant helpers in those heroic
nuns whom the Church has judged worthy of the
distinctive name of Sisters of Charity? As a mat-
ter of fact, other helpers had been sought in vain.
Indeed the scene of labour opened before them was
far from inviting, especially in those pioneer times,
and such immense distances from civilization.
The following pages have been written to show
how generously the Grey Nuns hearkened to the
call which they heard, and how faithfully and
fruitfully they have worked in the various duties
of their holy vocation. This book does not tell all.
There is only one book in which all is told, the
Book of Life, "in quo totum continetur," as we
chant in the Dies Irae. But the Book of Life is
under the jealous guard of the Angels until the day
when all hearts shall be revealed.
Dear Reverend Mother, when all the entries
of that Book of Life are made known, the world
8
PREFATORY LETTER
will be surprised, but your Community will have
reason to rejoice and to be glad. Meanwhile, be
pleased to accept this little volume as a small token
of our grateful remembrance of those devout
women who have laboured along with us in spread-
ing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing
written in this work to which I cannot bear wit-
ness as the absolute truth. The author describes
the things which he himself has seen, or of which
he has personally collected the evidence. He has
written at my special request, and as the interpreter
of my own feelings. With his talent, and devotion
to his task, he could not but succeed. I congratu-
late him, and I thank him with all my heart.
It is to be hoped that this true tale of the heroic
works of the Grey Nuns in the Northwest will in-
spire many generous souls to follow in their steps.
The power of example is very great. Greatest of
all ought to be the power and attraction of examples
which show true nobility of soul. Hearts capable
of self-denial are everywhere to be found. They
need but a spark of the heavenly fire to kindle
them, and to make them feel what high deeds they
might do for the love of God.
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus, "the Burning
Furnace of Charity," deign to make use of this
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
pledge of our religious gratitude as a means to set
many a heart on fire with a vocation for your ad-
mirable missionary Institute.
I remain, Dear Reverend IVIother, with much
respect,
Yours devotedly
in our Lord and Mary Immaculate,
GABRIEL BREYNAT, O.M.I.,
Bishop of Adramyttium,
Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie.
10
INTRODUCTION
To THE Queen of the Apostles I dedicate this
book.
It is not a full history of the Grey Nuns in the
far North. Even a large volume would not suf-
fice to tell all the w^onderful things which I was
privileged to see and to admire, during the months
which I spent in visiting the posts which they oc-
cupy in the vanguard of the Church. But I hope
the reader will find here evidence enough of one of
the grandest examples of self-devotion which the
Church of Christ Crucified has ever inspired in
the course of ages.
Like the Church herself — of which they are the
life-guards and "storm-troops" — the various reli-
gious societies are successful and efficient in the
measure in which they are faithful to the spirit of
their Founders. Hence I will begin by telling of
the Foundress of the Canadian Sisters of Charity,
the model most faithfully copied, the Venerable
Mother d' Youville, that "Mother to be admired
above measure, and worthy to be remembered by
good men" (2 Mace. VII.). Like mother, were
the daughters, as the course of our story will show.
I have thought it desirable to make mention
11
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
also of the pioneer Sisters of the Red River (Win-
nipeg) who, seventy-four years ago, had prepared
the way for their sisters of the Mackenzie district.
They set out from Montreal in a birch-bark canoe.
The traveller's heart always beats high, and his
eye lights up, when, upon the thorny pathway, he
finds the footmarks of those of his own name and
race, who have cleared the road that he is follow-
ing.
May the Mother of Divine Grace obtain a
blessing upon a work undertaken in obedience to
the wishes of the Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie,
and intended to make the self-sacrificing labours of
the Grey Nuns better known, and their poor
Indians better loved.
12
CHAPTER I.
MADAME D'YOUVILLE AND HER WORK.
The first of the Grey Nuns was Madame d'
Youville, nee Marie Marguerite Dufrost de hi
Jemmerais. Her father, Christopher, in 1687, left
the three-centuries-old chateau of La Jemmerais
at Medreac in the diocese of St. Malo, in Brittany,
to fight against the Iroquois in Canada. He was
made a Captain for his bravery in the field.
Madame d'Youville's mother, Marie Renee de
Varennes, was the daughter of Rene de Varennes,
and grand-daughter of the sieur Boucher de
Boucherville, each of whom was, in his day, Gov-
ernor of Three Rivers. Two of the brothers of
Marie Renee de Varennes were priests. Another
brother was the celebrated de la Verandrye (de
Varennes), the first explorer of the banks of the
Red River and the Assiniboine. His sister, Marie
Louise, was the great-grandmother of Mgr. Tache,
O.M.I.^ the first Archbishop of St. Boniface (Red
River).
Marie Marguerite, the eldest of six children,
was born on October 15, 1701, in the manor-house
of Varennes, on the banks of the Saint Lawrence.
When she was onlv seven years old, her father died,
13
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
leaving to his family the example of all those vir-
tues w^hich are often, under God, the flower and
fruit of poverty and Christian nobleness. From
this early age may be dated the beginning of the
long career of self-sacrifice of Marie Marguerite.
She never had as her own more than the two years
which she spent — in preparation for her First
Communion — in the Ursuline Convent at Quebec.
On August 12, 1722, Marie Marguerite was
married to Francois d'Youville, a gentleman of
Ville-Marie, and son of Pierre You. Though reli-
giously prepared for, on her part, her marriage
brought her nothing but unhappiness. A jealous
mother-in-law, and a bad and cruel husband, soon
turned from thoughts of earth a heart which was
too large for earth to fill. Her soul quickly sought
an incomparably higher ideal than worldly happi-
ness. Being of the number of the specially elect,
she was destined to belong to God alone. She had,
therefore, to pass through the noviceship of the
Saints, a noviceship of suffering, most patiently
borne.
After six years of what may justly be called a
martyrdom, the good Samaritan was found to pour
out oil and wine upon her wounds. This consoler
and spiritual guide was the parish priest of Ville
Marie, M. Dulescoat, a Sulpician. To what
heio-hts of holiness she was raised under the wise
14
MADAME DTOUVILLE AND HER WORK
direction* of this man of God will be told in the
process of her beatification, for it may be said
with all confidence that the Church is about to pro-
pose Madame d'Youville as a model for many who
suffer.
Her husband died on July 4, 1730. She had
loved him sincerely, and she mourned him sin-
cerely, too. But she lifted up her head, and placed
all her confidence in God, Her great and special
devotion was directed to the Eternal Father, the
support of all weakness, the source of all good. She
gave her attention at once to the fulfilment of her
duties as widow and mother. She had to pay the
household debts, and bring up the two children
who remained to her. To these duties her ardent
zeal soon added others : the service of the poor, the
sick, and prisoners, and of all those in whom the
eye of Faith discovers a special resemblance to
our Divine Master. Her Lives, by M. Faillon
and Madame Jette, tell in detail of her prayers, and
vigils, and good works.
M. I'Abbe Dulescoat remained her trusted
director until his death in 1733.
The name of his successor will be held for ever
in benediction among the Grey Nuns, who look
upon him as the Co-Founder of their Institute.
This worthy Sulpician Priest was M. Normant de
Faradon. He was highlv intelligent, prudent, and
15
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
mortified, and specially zealous for the promotion
of God's glory by serving the poor. He continued
the work begun by M. Dulescoat, and guided
Madame d'Youville on the road to perfection in
piety and self-sacrifice.
After a time Madame d'Youville's debts were
paid, and her two sons were priests, Francois be-
coming eventually Cure of St. Ours and Charles
of Boucherville (parishes on the right bank of the
St. Lawrence, not far from Montreal). She was
free to devote herself and all that she possessed to
the service of the poor.
If at that moment the vision had been granted
to her of a wide-spreading tree, planted by her
hands under the shadow of the Cross, giving shelter
to sufferers from all the ills which flesh is heir to,
a tree whose branches cover the face of America,
assuredly such a revelation would have terrified
her humility. She had in view simply a little
group of pious, pure, and practical workers, who
would edify each other at home, and would do all
the good that was in their power outside, among the
poor. She found three young ladies of good will
who joined her. They were Miles. Thaumur-
Lassource, Demers and Cusson. The little begin-
ning of a community was formed on the last day
of the year 1737.
At first the pious friends kept their own
16
MADAME D'YOUVILLE AND HER WORK
counsel, and did not appear before the world as
a community. They went slowly, in order to go
safely. At length, on the eve of All Saints Day in
1738, the new community took up its abode in a
rented house in Montreal, into which ten poor
people were very soon welcomed. In such humble
fashion was laid that evening the foundation stone
of what is now a great edifice, the Religious Insti-
tute of the Grey Nuns, the Sisters of Charity, of the
General Hospital of Montreal. It was in truth a
simple and humble beginning: nothing but a
prayer, the reading of a short Rule of Life, and a
little discourse by Abbe Normant. The prayer, in
presence of a little statue of Mary Immaculate,
besought our Blessed Lady to accept the Act by
which her poor servants were consecrating them-
selves for life to the service of Jesus Christ in his
afflicted members. When the General Hospital
was burnt to the ground in 1765, the statue was
found uninjured, and it has been preserved by the
Nuns as a sign that their prayer was heard, and
their offering accepted. The Rule, given to them
by their spiritual director, stated that the Associ-
ates would live in common on the fruit of their
own exertions, and with no other bond than mutual
charity. Charity has ever remained the distinctive
note of the Grey Nuns. In his discourse. Abbe
Normant told those first associates of Charity that
17
2
THE GREY NUKS IN THE FAR NORTH
Venerable ^^Iother d'Youville,
Foundress of the Order of the Grey Nuns in America,
whose number now exceeds four thousand.
18
MADAME D'YOUVILLE AND HER WORK
the Cross of Christ was the one support of all
works undertaken for God, and that they must
be prepared for opposition and persecution, which
could be overcome only by patience, charity, and
meekness.
The preacher's words were a prediction. No
trials were' spared his spiritual children. Death
visited them in 1741, when the gentle Mile. Cusson
was called to her reward. Sickness tried them for
seven continuous years. During all that time, the
beloved mother of the community had to keep her
bed, suffering from a knee disease brought on by
walking so frequently in the snow, on the way to
hear Mass, or to visit the sick. Another affliction
came when that first house of theirs was burnt down
on January 13, 1745, and they had to rush out into
the dark and the intense cold when only half-clad.
Insults, too, they had to bear. They were hissed
and hooted, and calumniated. It was said they
gave strong drink to the Indians, and used it very
freely themselves. Some witty people called them
Soeurs Grises, the same French word meaning grey
and tipsy. When the time came to choose a reli-
gious habit. Mother d'Youville selected the grey
colour, bearing in mind how our Divine Lord was
mocked by the crowd, while suffering the deith
reserved for slaves. So it was that a name given in
derision became a name of honour. That name,
19
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
chosen by the Foundress in the spirit of humility,
has stirred many a heart like a trumpet-call, rous-
ing the desire to be clothed in that badge of humi-
lity and charity.
That first little community bore, therefore, as
we see, the mark of the Cross, the token of God's
love. The time came when it was called to enlarge
the place of its tent, to lengthen its cords, and
strengthen its stakes. Father Dulescoat had said
in the beginning to Madame d'Youville, as if in
prophecy, "Take courage, my child; God has a
great work in store for you; you will support and
uplift a house tottering to its fall." This great
work was already plain enough, though in its be-
ginnings. For ten years it had been growing, in
observance of the Rule, and in the self-consecration
of the earliest days. There was a well-established
community of six members, Miles. Thaumur,
Dcmers, Rainville, Laforme, Veronneau, and the
Foundress. The tottering house, in the year 1747,
appealed to their charity. It was the General
Hospital of Ville-Marie.
The Hospital of Ville-Marie was founded in
1692 by Francois Charon de la Barre, on ground
given by the Seminary of St. Sulpice. It was offi-
cially approved by Letters Patent of Louis XIV
on April 15, 1694. Mgr. de Saint-Vallier, Bishop
of Quebec, on October 8, 1723, gave his approba-
20
MADAME D'YOUVILLE AND HER WORK
tion to a religious community — the Brothers Hos
pitallers of St. Joseph of the Cross — which was to
have charge of this Hospital for the benefit of or-
phans, and sick or infirm men. In 1747 this estab-
lishment was in truth in a tottering state. There
were only two Brothers, in charge of four poor
people, and not really able to provide even for
these. The house itself was in such a state as may
be guessed from the fact that 1,226 panes of glass
were wanting.*
On October 7, 1747, owing to the efforts of
Father Normant, this decayed Hospital of Ville-
Marie was placed under the control of Madame
d'Youville, who had to be carried there on a mat-
tress, in a cart. She was followed by her five com-
panions, and nine poor people. Once more was
the good work marked with the sign which stamps
works done for God. The trial this time was one
of the hardest of all to bear, for it came from those
who ought to have been the defenders of right, and
*Francois Charon, founder of the Hospital and the Brothers
Hospitallers, was born in Quebec in 1654. When thirty-four years
of age, he gave up a prosperous business, in order to devote him-
self to the service of the afflicted. He died in 1719, in France,
whither he had gone in search of men of good will who would
imitate his own courage and self-devotion. The Grey Nuns, who
came into possession of the Hospital property, venerate the memory
of Brother Charon. The principal assistant of Brother Charon
was Pierre le Ber, the brother of Jeanne le Ber. Jeanne was the
pious recluse, of whom it was said that "the perfume of her virtues
made the whole Colony fragrant."
21
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
protectors of weakness. On one hand, the Court
of France did not wish any new Congregation of
women to be founded in Canada. On the other
hand, the Bishop of Quebec was convinced that
Mother d'Youville's little community would not
survive herself, and so he easily let himself be
persuaded that the best thing to do was to transfer
to the Hospital of Quebec whatever property be-
longed to the Hospital of Montreal.* The Gov-
ernor approved of the Bishop's decision. One day,
as Mother d'Youville was returning from the mar-
ket, where she had been buying food for the poor
people under her care, she heard it proclaimed,
with beat of drum, by order of the Bishop, of the
Governor and of the Intendant, that her authority
over the Hospital was at an end, and that the In-
stitution was transferred to Q'uebec.
However, the Society of Saint Sulpice was on
guard. M. Cousturier, Superior General of Sulpi-
cians in Paris, pleaded his cause so well before the
Court of France that Louis XV, on June 3, 1753,
issued Letters Patent confirming Madame d'You-
ville and her companions in the administration of
the Hospital of Ville-Marie. Happier days were
dawning, and bringing visible signs of the Divine
Blessing. On June 15, 1755, Mgr. de Pontbriant,
*Of course, jMontreal was not a separate diocese at this time.
Ville-Marie was the first name of Montreal, and it is still the name
of a suburb.
12
MADAME DTOl VILLE AND HER WORK
Bishop of Quebec, gave canonical approbation to
the new Sisterhood. Two months later, on August
25, the feast of St. Louis, the Grey Nuns appeared
in their parish church, wearing for the first time
the religious habit received that morning at the
hands of Father Louis Normant. The people
bowed respectfully as the new Nuns passed.
It was not until July 30, 1880, that their Reli-
gious Institute was solemnly and finally approved
by Pope Leo XIII. But, from the first episcopal
approbation, the youthful society waxed strong. It
needed to be strong in order to be able to survive
the new trials which came upon it.
When England gained possession of Canada,
the great feudal families returned to France. Bene-
factors disappeared one by one. Mother d'You-
ville, who was an admirable business woman, as
well as a Religious Foundress, had recourse to all
sorts of industrious plans in order to make ends
meet. Needlework, gardening, limeburning,
tobacco growing — everything was tried. Mother
d'Youville was responsible for the building of the
first ferry boat, which carried people from the
Montreal Island to Longueuil on the other side of
the St. Lawrence.
After sixteen years of hard work, and of ap-
peals made in all quarters, the Hospital was com-
paratively prosperous, when a fire broke out on
23
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
May 18, 1765. In a little while the whole build-
ing was consumed, and 1 18 persons were left with-
out even a roof to shelter them. Amid the ruins,
the pious Foundress said, "My children, let us
kneel down and recite the Te Deum, to give thanks
to God for sending us this cross." When she rose
to her feet, she said, as if inspired, "Be of good
heart, it will never burn again." Her words have
remained true till the present hour.
Divine Providence deigned to reward, in seem-
ingly miraculous ways, the filial resignation and
trust of his servants. A much needed cask of wine,
found beneath the rubbish of the building, lasted
beyond all human calculation, and the Foundress
laid her hands upon sums of money of whose pre-
sence she could give no account. "Oh, what a
wretched creature I am," she said in deepest humil-
ity, at beholding such clear evidences of the Divine
favour."
The sick, under the care of the Sisters, were not
abandoned for a single day, in spite of all the diffi-
culty and destitution. And though these sick per-
sons were numerous, the devoted Grey Nuns were
foremost in self-sacrificing work for others also, in
times of public calamity. In 1755, the Foundress
and her Sisters, at the risk of their lives, nursed
the Indians through an attack of smallpox. Her
example was followed by the Grey Nuns in 1832,
24
MADAME DTOUVILLE AND HER WORK
when the cholera was raging. In 1847, when
eleven hundred Irish emigrants were crowded to-
gether in the typhus sheds at Point St. Charles,
Montreal, Mother MacMullen appealed to her
thirty-seven Sisters for volunteers to go amongst
them. Everyone said, "I will go." They went — -
the professed nuns and the novices. All caught
the fever except three. Seven of them died of it,
like the emigrants themselves. But they said they
were happy to suffer something for the poor.
In a little Historical Catechism published in
1901, and approved by Mgr. Bruchesi, Archbishop
of Montreal, we find the following mention of some
charitable works in Mother d'Youville's own life-
time. "Besides the sick, and aged men, and orphan
boys, whose care she accepted when taking charge
of the General Hospital, Mother d'Youville pro-
vided also for aged and infirm women and orphan
girls. She gave shelter to incurable cases — cases
of leprosy, cancer, epilepsy, and other repulsive
diseases, as well as of mental disease. In 1750 she
opened a House of Refuge for fallen women, thus
beginning in Canada what is so justly called the
work of the Good Shepherd. In 1754 she began
to take in children deserted by their kindred (les
enfants trouves), being the first person in America
whom God inspired to undertake this charitable
work without any payment from public or private
25
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
funds. In 1755 she gave a home to poor pock-
marked women, and cared for them in her own
house. In 1756 the sick and wounded prisoners
of war were nursed in the General Hospital."
More surprising than this incomplete list is the
general principle laid down by the Foundress, and
accepted as their sublime motto by the Grey Nuns.
Her exact words were: "The Sisters will be ever
ready to undertake all manner of good works,
which may be placed before them by Divine Provi-
dence, and approved by Superiors." These were
her spoken words, and in agreement with them
were the sentences which she wrote down only a
year before her death. Age and lifelong labour
account for the trembling hand in which Mother
d'Youville wrote thus : "We are eighteen Sisters, all
in feeble health, and we have charge of an establish-
ment in which there are 170 persons to be fed, and
almost as many to be clothed. Our resources are
very slender. We depend chiefly on the work of
our hands, which brings us only a third of what we
were able to gain before the English came. We
seem always on the point of starvation, yet some-
how our necessities, at least, are always provided
for. Day by day I admire how Divine Providence
vouchsafes to make use of His poor servants in
doing some little good."
The parting recommendation of this venerated
26
MADAME DTOUVILLE AND HKR WORK
Foundress, and what is looked upon as her hist Will
and Testament, may be found in the following
words which occupy the place of honour in the
community room of every convent of the Grey
Nuns:
MY dh;ar sisters, remain always faithful to
the; holy state which you have chosen ; TAKE
CARE NOT to fail IN THE PRACTICE OF REGULARITY,
OBEDIENCE, A.ND MORTIFICATION ; ABOVE ALL THINGS,
BE SO UNITED THAT YOU WILL SEEM TO HAVE BUT
ONE HEART AND ONE SOUL.
She said also, "How happy I should be, if I
were in Heaven, and all my Sisters with me!" In
fact, her career was closing. She died of apoplexy
on December 23, 1771, aged 70 years.
It was remarked that her drawn and wasted
features quite changed when her long sufferings
were over: she looked quite radiant, and as if in
renewed health. Several reliable persons declared
also that, at the moment of her death, they saw a
Cross of light shining over the Hospital. It was
seen by the learned M. Delisle.* He did not know
of the passing of the Foundress, and he exclaimed,
"Oh, what Cross is visiting the poor Grey Nuns!
What is going to happen them?"
What really happened was that the Foundress
*Note. — Mr. Delisle, one of the principal citizens of Ville-^^Iarie,
verj' well known in Canada among men of letters for his knowl-
edge of natural sciences.
27
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
in Heaven obtained from the Heavenly Father a
most abundant blessing upon the works in which
she had toiled not sparingly, the high tree which
she had planted, and her holy life and labours had
fertilized.
Not only so : the parent tree sent out also vigor-
ous branches, so that, beside the Institute with
which we are particularly concerned here (i.e., the
Sisters of Charity of the General Hospital of Mon-
treal) ^ there are also in Canada the Sisters of
Charity of the Hotel-Dieu of St. Hyacinthe, St.
Hyacinthe (1840); the Sisters of Charity, Grey
Nuns of the Cross, Ottawa (1845) ; the Sisters of
Charity of Quebec, Quebec (1849) ; and another
ofTshoot of the St. Hyacinthe branch, called the
Sisters of Charity of the Hotel-Dieu of Nicolet,
Nicolet (1886).
The first Mother House, Mother dTouville's
own foundation, has its branch houses now spread
abroad from the Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean (See
Appendix).
And the Cause of Beatification of the Vener-
able Foundress was at length in our day introduced
before the Roman tribunals, Pope Leo XIII hav-
ing signed, on March 27, 1890, the formal docu-
ment preparing for the Beatification "of this
valiant woman, who was all on fire with zeal and
charity in the service of the poor."
28
CHAPTER 11.
"stepping westward"
The Red River (1844)
Ox September 13, 1843, the Feast of the Exal-
tation of the Holy Cross, a tall ecclesiastic, wear-
ing a "threadbare cassock," and in his humble and
pious appearance seeming the very picture of mis-
sionary zeal, knocked at the door of the Grey Nuns
of Montreal. It was Mgr. Provencher, the first*
missionary of the Northwest, and first Bishop of
the Red River, or St. Boniface. For twenty years
he had been seeking in vain for motherly hands to
break the bread of instruction for the little ones
of his diocese. In 1822, he had consulted Mgr.
*We call him first, because he was the first to fix his residence
there. The Jesuit Fathers in the 18th century did little more than
pass through. They had little chance of exercising their ministry
outside the French Forts. These courageous missionaries who,
between 1732 and 1751, succeeded one another at Fort St. Charles
and Fort La Reine (Portage la Prairie) were Fr. Massaiger,
Fr. Aulneau (Killed by the Sioux on the He aux Massacres),
Fr. Coquart, and Fr. de la Morinie. After them, there w-as no
priest in the West for sixty-five years. In 1816, Abbe Tabeau
reached Lac la Pluie (Rainy Lake), but hearing of a sort of
battle which had taken place on June 19, in which many men
had been killed by Indians and half-breeds, he returned immediately
to the East. MAI. Provencher and Dumoulin reached the Red
River on July 16, 1818. See "Hist, of Cath. Church in Western
Canada" by Fr. Morice, O.M.I. 2 vols. Toronto: Musson, 1910.
29
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Plessis, Bishop of Quebec, his consecrator. But
they had both come to the conclusion that the pri-
vations to be faced in a land so far away-
made it impossible to expect help from any com-
munity of women. Later on, application was
made, without result, to the Bishop of Amiens, and
the Lyons Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
In 1838, the Ursulines of Three Rivers were so
touched by the poor Bishop's account of the need
of a Catholic school that they offered to go to him.
But they were cloistered nuns, and how could they
be cloistered in the boundless prairies of the West?
Appeal was made to the Sisters of the Cross in Ken-
tucky. They were too few in number. The Sisters
of St. Joseph in Lyons were also unable to accept.
Some Belgian nuns in Cincinnati promised to refer
the matter to their Mother House in Namur.
Bishop Provencher was worn out with his fail-
ures in the Old World and the New, when some-
one said — what had often been said in the life-
time of Mother d'Youville — "Try the Grey Nuns;
they never refuse." The missionary prelate con-
sulted Mgr. Bourget, the saintly Bishop of Mon-
treal, who encouraged him to go, and went with
him to the Convent. To the assembled community
of thirty-eight nuns, Mgr. Provencher said : "When
leaving the Red River, I said, 'O, my God, you
know my need of the help of nuns. Vouchsafe to
30 ■
"STEPPING WESTWARD^^
lead my steps into some place where I can find
them.' Then I set out in confidence that my prayer
would be heard. Would any of you be willing to
come to the Red River?"
At first the Sisters made no answer. But when
Mother Forbes-MacMullen, who had been elected
Mother-General a couple of weeks earlier, spoke,
and asked if they were willing to make the sacri-
fice, every one of them expressed her willingness
to go. Four were chosen: Sister Valade (Mother
Superior), Sister Lagrave, Sister Coutlee (also
known as Sister St. Joseph), and Sister Lafrance.
They set out on April 24, 1844.
It is not easy at the present time to realize the
meaning of that journey into the Great Lone Land
in 1844. In our day, the traveller may be whirled,
in a Pullman car, from Montreal to Winnipeg,
from Winnipeg to Edmonton, from Edmonton to
Athabaska Landing, and even now to MacMur-
ray. Such a traveller has no idea of the anxieties,
the inconveniences, the humiliations, the dis-
appointments, the accidents and injuries by flood
and field, the sufferings of all sorts, and the many
tears, of those who passed of old through the rivers,
tlie rapids, the immense and silent prairies, the
woods, and the mountains, which are now simply
a feast for his eyes. The modern tourist covers in
31
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
four days the 2,200 miles, which took four months
in the olden times.
The life of the wood and the prairie has some
attractions, no doubt, for the Indian and the
Coureur des hois, who are equally at home at every
point of the horizon. Yet even for them it is a hard
life. What must it be for the Priest, who had been
accustomed to his books, his prayers, and his quiet
times of retreat! And what for the young Nun,
who has just left her mother's care, or the happy
toil and delightful companionship of the novitiate,
and whose journeys may have been only between
her chapel and the sick room of some patient!
Travelling into the Northwest in primitive
fashion means a frail and inconvenient canoe, with
a crew not over-civilized, shooting some rapids,
endless portages elsewhere, rude carts on rough
roads, slow and stubborn oxen, forced marches,
treacherous quagmires, nights in the open air,
piercing wind and rain, ice that comes too soon,
and thaw that comes too late, snow-storm and
wreck, unbearable cold, and then millions of mos-
quitoes, with heat as if of the dog-days. We may
imagine the Crucified Lord, who gives vocations,
saying to some one in sight of such a prospect,
"Daughter, can you drink of my chalice?" Many
a Sister of Charity has answered, "Yea, Lord, with
Thy grace T can : mv heart is ready."
32
"STEPPING WESTWARD"
Master, lead on, and I will follow Thee,
To the last gasp, in faith and loyalty.
The Grey Nuns who were called and led, and
who so loyally answered the call, were needed to
help in saving souls for which Christ died. But
how uninviting the visible envelope that hides those
precious souls! The Indians may indeed be up-
right and simple-minded, but their ways and their
notions are not as ours. To the civilized world
they are only "savages." The Sister of Charity
going to live among them knew all this. She knew
that she was bidding farewell for ever to all that
her heart held most dear. She knew also that she
would have to be content with the shelter of a hut,
and with food w^hich could not be offered to
criminals in penal servitude. She knew that when
her work was done she would die far away from
home and native land, and from that dear Mother
House, the cradle of her religious life, to which
she was bound by so many cords of love. She knew
that she would be buried in the frozen earth, where
at night the wild beasts still run to and fro. Did
she hesitate to accept that "chalice?" No. no! In
1844, the first Grey Nuns were seen "stepping west-
ward," with a smile upon their lips, as if going to
a bridal feast. Since then, hundreds of others have
followed, and we may be sure that as long as there
are souls in need. Sisters of Charity will be found
to serve them. 33
3
THE GREY NUNS IX THE FAR NORTH
We have been keeping a Mackenzie Golden
Jubilee, and we naturally ask ourselves what
a Bishop in the Mackenzie territory is likely to
have to report at the end of another half-century.
Civilization is making its way by leaps and bounds
towards the north and the west. Perhaps even be-
fore 1967, there will be written about those utter-
VisiTiNG THE Poor, in the Far North.
most bounds of the Canadian Dominion what is
written now concerning Regina, Edmonton, and
Calgary, places which, fifty years ago, were
thought destined for all time to be the haunts of the
buffalo. Perhaps from the vast prairies the rail-
roads will have been carried further still, piercing
34
. J
"STEPPING WESTWARD"
the virgin forests, and skirting the banks of the
broad rivers. Perhaps round about Lake Athabas-
ka, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake, ad-
venturous men will be taking from the frost-bound
earth some portion of the treasures which it con-
tains of coal and oil, of iron and copper and silver.
Perhaps with such progress there will not be pov-
erty, and instead of smoky log-cabins, there will be
palatial schools, and magnificent hospitals. Per-
haps the stories of the privations and perils of
missionary priests and nuns, and other "old-tim-
ers," will seem like fairy tales. Who knows? It is
not for us either to desire or to regret. Perhaps,
where civilization of a sort comes, without reli-
gion, there may be for the represeitatives of reli-
gion, moral sufferings not easier to endure than the
physical sufferings to be met with in converting
poor primitive races, not too corrupt.
At all events, even when the Palefaces advance,
there will still be the Arctic circle and the barren
grounds of the Eskimo. But of one thing we are
sure: the missionaries even of the Arctic Ocean
shore will not be more heroic than the first mis-
sionary Sisters of the Red River, or those of Mac-
kenzie in our own day.
As we have'said, April 24, 1844, was the day to
bid good-bye to Montreal. The last prayers were
said before the Lady Altar in the Cathedral, where
35
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Mgr. Bourget gave his blessing to the little cara-
van. It happened, for the special trial of the
Sisters, that Mgr. Prov^encher, through illness, was
unable to accompany them, and so those pioneers
were left without the help and consolation of
which very few of their successors have been de-
prived. The Hudson Bay Company's boats, which
sent up stores every year from Montreal, took pas-
sengers also. A number of birch-bark canoes
formed a regular flotilla. The canoe assigned to
the nuns was forty feet in length, and five in
breadth. It had eight oarsmen. It carried a cargo
of 4,000 lb. in weight, without counting the sails,
tents, bedding, provisions, kitchen utensils, etc.
The Sisters made room for themselves as best they
could amid the boxes and bales. The canoe was
to be to them ''all the world for cell," during two
long months.
Their course was by the Ottawa river (from
Lachine, near Montreal) the Mattawa, the Vase
river, V Lake Nipissing, the French river. Lake
Huron, Lake Superior (at Fort William they had
the happiness of seeing Abbe Lafleche afterwards
Bishop, and Abbe Bourassa), the Kaministiquia
river, Rainy Lake, the Lake of the Woods, the Win-
nipeg river, and several streams of less importance.
It was a journey of 1,400 miles, in which were en-
countered more than fiftv rapids, eightv portages,
36
"STEPPING WKSTWARD''
and almost as many other interruptions not con-
sidered worth calling portages. A portage
means the carrying of the boats and their contents
from one lake or river to another, or from one part
of a river to the next navigable part. The distances
vary, but the work is always very hard. Each man
carries about 200 lb. weight, the boatmen carry the
canoe, and the passengers their own luggage. Mud,
rocks, fallen trees, trees that have been felled, are
among the troubles to be met with in a portage. In
the hot weather, the panting and perspiring pas-
senger is assailed by clouds of insects, thirsting for
his blood, and drawing it! It must be remembered
also that in 1844 travellers to the Red River passed
through the countries of Indian tribes still uncivi-
lized and pagan, and some of them, such as the
Sioux, very fierce. The only signs of civilization
were the crosses marking the graves of pioneers
who had perished prematurely.
We have had the advantage of seeing the diary
which was kept by the Grey Nuns during that voy-
age of theirs to the West. Sister Valade wrote be-
fore they had gone very far: "At Dorval Island,
we were still rather near, and we slept fairly well.
But in the morning, when we had to go on again,
my poor heart failed me. The passengers were
singing in order not to be sad. I could not help
admiring the courage of Sister Lagrave, who sang
37
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the hymn, Benissons a jamais le Seigneur pour ses
bienfaits. For my part, it was only with my tears
that I could bless the Lord."
On May 2, Sister Lagrave herself wrote : "what
can I say? I think the great gale over Lake Huron
blows all my ideas away. I am sitting on a rock
trying to collect a few, while my head is dizzy,
and my heart is beating very fast. The voyage is
still more trying even than I expected. But God
will enable me to bear up even to the end. Sister
Valade and I have hardly slept since we set out.
The two younger Sisters are getting on much bet-
ter. We have had bad weather nearly all the time,
and, when the rain stops, the wind is nearly always
against us. When we land, to camp out, we are
soaking with rain, or shivering with cold. We
make a good fire; but we burn on one side, and
freeze on the other. When the tent is up, we spread
an oilcloth on the ground, and a blanket upon that,
and so the bed is made. You can understand that
it is not a very comfortable bed, especially if there
has been a downpour all day. When the rain con-
tinues during the night, the tent is not of much use,
and our clothes are wringing wet. In spite of
everything, I have courage enough to carry out
God's holy will, even though it should cost me
more. I have embraced the Cross as my portion,
and I mean to cling to it, even until death, in the
38
"STEPPING WESTWARD"
spirit of our Holy Rule. On the rocks on which
we have pitched our tents to-day, there are many
serpents. The men have killed four. Yesterday
we had to shoot several dangerous rapids. The
boatmen shouted with delight going down.
I, too, enjoyed the novelty. The other Sisters were
pale with terror. Thank God, we have had no
accident so far. The portages are long and fatigu-
ing, especially for me. Climbing mountains is no
easy matter, nor is it easy to make a way for your-
self through overhanging branches, and to pass
over a ravine on a half-rotten tree."
Alas! the accident was not long in coming.
Sister Valade takes up the pen at this point : "Since
the foregoing lines were written. Sister Lagrave
has sprained her ankle by slipping on a rock. She
had to be carried to the canoe by two men. I fear
she will not be able to walk for a long time, and
there are portages still before us. God Almighty
sends us plenty of crosses: blessed be His Holy
Name!" It was indeed a great trial. How was
a person to be brought through woods and morasses,
who had to be carried by two men? It was no
wonder that the chief man of the company at Fort
William decided that she must be left behind. But
he allowed himself to be persuaded to reverse his
decision, and two sturdy Iroquois were hired to
take charge of the sufferer. Sister Valade wrote:
39
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
"What a torture it has been, not onlv for Sister
Lagrave herself, but for me also! I could not eat
or drink until the matter was settled according to
our wishes."
The four Grey Nuns reached the Red River at
St. Boniface on June 21, 1844, after a continuous
journey of fifty-nine days. Their assigned lodging
was a little house, built in 1828. "It is indeed the
stable of Bethlehem," they wrote.
They began to teach school on July 1 1. They
had from the very beginning fifty-four pupils,
mostly Sauteux or Half-Breeds, and some Sioux.
During their first winter at St. Boniface, the
thermometer inside their house marked 40 degrees
Fahr. (72 degrees below freezing point). Mgr.
Provencher, then again at home, gave them shelter
in his own house, though they had made no com-
plaint. "The Bishop's house was not quite so
cold." they wrote.
At St. Boniface Sister Lagrave gave religious
instruction outside the Convent. All through the
winter, driving a little conveyance of her own, she
went distances of several miles, to teach the cate-
chism and prayers to children, and women, and
men, all of whom eagerly welcomed her instruc-
tions. She also acted as the physician of all the
neighbourhood.
As we must pass away from St. Boniface, we
40
"STEPPING WESTWARD''
can do no more now than make mention of the great
flood of 1852, and only in so far as it affected and
afflicted the nuns themselves in particular. One
of them wrote: "Our community had just begun
to feel very much at home in our new house —
which was finished last year — when, on April 27,
the sudden flood struck terror into all hearts. For
several days the waters kept rising, reaching even
fourteen or fifteen feet. The inhabitants aban-
doned their homes to the fury of the flood, which
continued until May 19 to sweep away all sorts
of constructions, and even solid houses. Of course,
we had to leave the ground floor. Our chapel, too,
was full of water, and Mass was said in the gallery.
In the night of May 12-13 there was a great wind
which made the whole house rock. On the 18th
our doors were at last thrown down. It was only
on June 6 that we were able to set foot outside the
house."
In 1861 St. Boniface was again flooded, and it
was then, on May 13th, that Sister Valade died.
"There was not even a foot of dry ground to receive
her mortal remains." The body of Sister Valade
was temporarily laid to rest near that of Mgr. Pro-
vencher, in the ruins of the Cathedral, which had
been burnt to the ground five months before. Mgr.
Tache, and his assistants, and those who carried the
coffin, had to walk and stand in water knee-deep.
41
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Surely we may say that the St. Boniface Con-
vent bore sufficient mark of the Cross. The Ven-
erable Mother d'Youville had given it her blessing
from on high. It was destined to live and prosper.
In matter of fact, it has developed into a Provincial
House, with seventeen other convents attached
thereto, and 244 religious.
42
CHAPTER III.
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH.
Lake St. Anne; St. Albert; lie a la Crosse; Lac La
Biche"(T8sg-62)
With Grey Nuns at the Red River, true Sisters
of the Charity of God, in charge of the dearest por-
tion of his flock, viz., the young, the infirm, and
the unfriended; and then with the Missionary
Oblates of Mary Immaculate coming into the field
to assist the secular clergy,* good Bishop Proven-
cher must have thought that his dream was realized,
and that he might sing his Nunc dimittis. On
June 7, 1853, the holy prelate did depart in peace
to his heavenly recompense, leaving to his young
Coadjutor, Bishop Tache, O.M.I.^ the ricli inherit-
*These devoted Priests, Coming from Eastern Canada in
answer to appeals from Mgr. Provencher, were the first to earn
the name of Apostles of the Northwest. Worthy of special
Mention are M. Bourassa, who penetrated even as far as the
Peace River ; M. Thibault in the modern Alberta and Saskatchewan,
who in 1845, at La Loche Portage, baptized the first Christians
of the Montagnais tribe; M. Belcourt in Manitoba; M. Lafleche at
He a la Crosse (Saskatchewan) ; and M. Darveau, called the
martyr of Lake Winnipegosis. Those worthy priests were in no
way wanting in the spirit of poverty or of obedience, but in that
terribly trying mission field. Bishop Provencher deeply felt the
need of a regular society, as the best guarantee of numbers, unity
and continuity. He succeeded in bringing the first Oblates to
the Red River in 1845, one year after the Grey Nuns.
43
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
ance of his thirty-five years of apostolic labours,
thirty-one of them in the episcopate. The aged
prelate had the consolation of thinking on his
]\Igr. a. TaCHE, O.M.I.,
Successor to Mgr. Provencher, and first Archl)ishop of
Saint-Boniface. His jurisdiction extended in the
West as far as the Rocky Mountains, and in the
North to the Arctic Ocean, until the
year 1862.
death-bed that the future of religion in his diocese
had been made secure.
Mgr. Tache, when the news reached him, was
44
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
far away at La Loche Portage. From there he
wrote to the Nuns at St. Boniface: "It is a terrible
blow. It will be long before any of us can cease to
feel it deeply. You, my dear Sisters, are indeed or-
phans, such was the paternal affection in your re-
gard of the Bishop for whom your tears flow. His
successor does not possess his virtues; but he does
inherit his kindness of heart, as far as you are con-
cerned, and his gratitude for all the good that you
are doing in this diocese. Indeed, it is to you, dear
Sisters, that I look for some of the consolation
which may make bearable the burden and anxiety
that must weigh upon the chief pastor. It is to
you that God Himself looks for still more good
that remains to be done in the interests of religion."
The letter sounded like a new word of com-
mand, telling the Nuns that they ought to be ready
to go still further afield. Let it be remembered
that at this date, and until 1862, the Red River,
though so far distant from Quebec or Toronto, was
only the threshold of a diocese which reached to
the Rocky Mountains and the Polar Sea. There
was but one Bishop in that vast expanse of L800,-
000 square miles.
In 1858, the northern portion of this diocese of
St. Boniface had five fixed missionary posts. From
these central stations, Bishop Tache, and Fathers
Grandin, Grollier, Faraud, Lacombe, Vegreville.
45
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Glut, Eynard, Tissot, Maisonneuve, Remas and
Gascon, O.M.I., travelled and trudged in all direc-
tions, making disciples of Christ among the Red
men, even up to the Arctic Circle.* But these mis-
sionaries, few in numbers, and worn out by their
long journeys and by the manual labour which
provided them with such food and shelter as con-
tented them, these overburdened missionary priests
felt more and more, day by day, their absolute need
of those who would give continuous and detailed
religious instruction, especially to the children.
There were, at Lake St. Anne, He a la Crosse and
Lac la Biche, Indians and Half-Breeds numerous
enough to require the care of the Grey Nuns.
Bishop Tache, therefore, betook himself to their
Mother House at Montreal.
Mother Deschamps, the Superior General, was
a lady of quick intelligence and lively faith. Her
conference with the Bishop was described as forc-
*The Central ]\Iissions were: — 1. Lake St Anne (formerlj'
Devil's Lake), from which the Saskatchewan, Upper Athabaska,
and Peace Rivers were visited. 2. Lac la Biche, from which Fort
Pitt and other places were served 3. lie a la Crosse, on which
Green Lake, La Loche Portage, and Caribou (or Reindeer) Lake
depended. 4. Fort Chipewyan (Nativit}^. on Lake Athabaska, with
Fond du Lac (Seven Dolours). It was from the Nativity Mission
that Father Faraud went to convert the Castors of Vermilion
and Dunvegan. 5. Fort Resolution (St. Joseph), on Great Slave
Lake, from which Father Grollier, visited very northerly posts. He
founded the missions of Big Island (Grande-Ile), Fort Simpson
and Good Hope.
46
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
ing one to think of the Mother of the Maccabees,
or a warm-hearted General sending out a forlorn
hope. A contract was drawn up. The nuns would
be found, at whatever cost. The Bishop would be
responsible for their spiritual interests, and would
help them in the observance of their Rule. As for
maintenance, Mgr. Tache felt bound to say that
the missionaries were all very poor; that they could
promise very little, and indeed could hardly pro-
mise anything for certain. "We are quite sure,"
said the Mother General, "the Fathers will not see
our Sisters starve: we ask only food and clothing."
"Sometimes," said the Bishop, "the Fathers them-
selves have not enough to eat." "Well," said the
Reverend Mother, "in that case our Sisters too will
fast, and will pray God to come to the help of
both communities."
Lake St. Anne and St. Albert. — On September
24, 1859, Sisters Emery, Lamy, and Alphonsus
arrived at Lake St. Anne. In 1863, they were
transferred to St. Albert. The Half-Breeds were
numerous at Lake St. Anne, but the ground there-
abouts was boggy, and not very suitable for culti-
vation, and, besides, it was too far from the Black-
feet Indians, who at that time were coming into
the Church. Being at Lake St. Anne in 1860, Mgr.
Tache, one day, bound on his snow-shoes and set off
47
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
El
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in
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48
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
with Father Lacombe to look for a better site.
Forty miles east of the lake, he planted his staff in
the snow, on a rising ground above the Sturgeon
River, and said, "Let the new Mission be here."
And he called it after Father Lacombe's Patron,
Saint Albert.
He a la Crosse.— On October 4, 1860, Mgr.
Grandin, who had just been consecrated as assist-
ant Bishop to Mgr. Tache, arrived at He a la
Crosse with a new and valiant company of "the
Greys." These were Sisters Agnes, Pepin and
Boucher. These foundresses of yet another con-
vent have left it on record that they reached lie a la
Crosse after "a voyage of sixty-three days, by river
and by lake, having met with an exceptionally
great number of disappointments and difficulties*
and accidents of all sorts."
*A few lines written in later times by Mother Letellier, the
Reverend Mother at St. Albert, also gives us some idea of the
"difficulties" of the land route from the east to He a La Crosse.
Mother Letellier, writing on June 2L 1898, from Green Lake,
which (like He a la Crosse) is in North Saskatchewan, said: "We
have arrived safe and sound, thank God, after some remarkable
experiences. The jolting on the so-called roads was something
dreadful. It really threatened to shake one all to pieces. Add to
this our sleepless nights, when we could only listen to the rain
beating upon our tent, or try to defend ourselves against an army
of mosquitoes and other insects. What an introduction into
missionary life for our devoted Sisters! And for one who comes
to visit these dear exiles, how the heart is stirred with sympathy
and admiration !"
49
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Along with the Nuns in their first journey to lie
a la Crosse in 1860, under the care of Bishop Gran-
din, was young Father Seguin, O.Al.L, who was
about to begin his missionary career of forty-one
years at Fort Good Hope, near the Arctic Circle.
He mentioned in a letter to Mgr. de Mazenod, the
venerated Founder of the Oblates, that in their
long journey from St. Boniface, with thirty-seven
portages between the lakes, they had twice escaped
from what seemed certain death. He told also how
at Grand Diable rapid their little cable had
snapped, and the boat, capsizing, was cast away in
the midst of inaccessible rocks. How it happened,
he went on to say, that, after the Bishop's Mass on
the riverside, the boat righted itself, and was floated
within their reach, was what nobody could ever
explain. Father Seguin, in the same letter, wrote
also: "There were sixty bales or packages in our
boat. This is the ordinary cargo. Into the bargain,
we were twenty-six persons in all, so that our bark
drew very much water. You may imagine how
overcrowded the passengers were. The rowers
could hardly find room to ply their oars. The
three Sisters were huddled together in a corner,
along with a squaw, who, from time to time, par-
took with pleasure of the vermin which she found
upon herself or her disgustingly dirty children.
All the Indians in this boat were covered with ver-
50
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
min, and in a very little time every one of us was
in the same condition.
"Twice our men, when dragging the boat
through rapids, were swept ofif their feet by the
current. Two of them were hurt rather seriously,
but the Sisters, being experienced nurses, were of
great service to them.
"In the portages we had often to make our way
over fallen trees, and through thorns and briars,
which not only tore our clothes, but left us with
bleeding faces and hands. It was raining every
day, and sometimes, as we walked, we were up to
the knees in water and mud. In camping out, we
occasionally had to imitate somewhat the lake-
dwellers of old, so as to be able to sleep in dry
quarters. But, in spite of our hardships, we were
all in good spirits. We were always ready to laugh,
even if at night some one woke his neighbours by
slipping ofif his planks into the muddy water, and
declaring it was awfully cold."
The famous coureur des bois, Vincent, who
guided so many of the Grey Nuns in northern jour-
neys, once told Father A. Watelle, at He a la
Crosse, a little story which is worth repeating here.
He was bringing one of the nuns from He a la
Crosse in a birch-bark canoe. An Indian was at
the prow; the nun, with a little girl, in the middle;
and Vincent at the helm. "We. were going down
51
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the rapid, Father," said Vincent, ''and it was a ter-
rible one. The canoe was dancing. At every
greater leap it made, the Sister evidently wanted to
stand up, and jump out on the rocks. I begged
her to be quiet or we were all lost. The more I
spoke, the more nervous she became, catching first
one side of the canoe and then the other. Yet the
Grey Sisters are well used to be brave. They know
how to travel. But this Sister was crying. Just
as we were coming to the most dangerous spot, I
remembered something that I had heard forty
years before, at Sorel, in the Province of Quebec,
'cMid I shouted, 'Sister, in virtue of obedience, I or-
der you to keep quiet.' I assure you. Father, it
was like a knock-down blow. She lay in the bot-
tom of the canoe, and never stirred hand or foot,
and so, thank God, we came safe through."
The Convent of He a la Crosse, though it did
not suffer so much as others from famine, yet
passed through many and greater trials. On
March 1 , 1 867, it was totally destroyed by fire. Sir
William Butler has written some memorable pages
about what he heard, and what he saw with his
own eyes in those remote places of the Wild North
Land. The Bishop of St. Albert, Mgr. Grandin
wrote concerning the destruction of March 1,
1867: "We had to stand helpless on the frozen lake,
in view of that fiery furnace, which was destroying
52
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
the fruit of years of labour and self-sacrifice. The
heat had melted the snow, so that we were standing
in water, and not one of us had another stocking
or shoe. Nothing whatever had been spared, not
even a handkerchief to wipe away our tears."
After the fire came the flood. From east and
west and south the waters pour into the Lake at
He a la Crosse. In the course of years it came to
pass that they rose higher and higher every spring,
gaining more and more upon the Mission premises.
A site, which in the beginning had been far above
the level of safety, became in course of time actual-
ly lower than the level of the lake in flood. The
new Orphanage, which sprang up from the ashes
of the old, had now to be abandoned. In 1905 the
ten Sisters of the community went away in tears,
whilst the Indians, on their part, besought them not
to abandon themselves and their children, and tried
forcibly to prevent their departure.
In 1909, Bishop Pascal, O.M.I., of Prince Albert,
wrote beseechingly to the Mother General : "The
other nuns who came were not able to stay,
where your Sisters lived for fifty years under less
favorable conditions. God Almighty seems to be
telling us that the Grey Nuns of Montreal are par
excellence the predestined Missionary Sisters of
this Northwest, and that they alone are capable of
filling posts demanding such self-sacrifice. In
53
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
every likely quarter, Father Grandin and I have
used all our powers of persuasion — in vain. No
community is willing to accept. Dear Reverend
Mother, I appeal to you once more. The Indians
remain inconsolable since the Nuns went. Your
Sisters in the little cemetery here are calling you
to come back and live and labour where they
laboured and died."
With what feelings the letter was read we are
not told. But this appeal was not in vain, though
it invited to heroic acts. The Grey Nuns returned
to the neighbourhood of He a la Crosse. "This
Mission, so dear to us," one of them wrote, "is ours
once more, to everyone's astonishment and edifica-
tion, but at what a cost to us!" Another site, how-
ever, was found thirty-five miles to the south, and
the new convent, the successor and heir — of sacri-
fices — to the historic He a la Crosse, is called the
Convent of our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Beauval,
Lac la Plonge, Saskatchewan.
Moreover, it was found possible in 1917 to
establish a second Convent at He a la Crosse itself.
Lac La Biche. — The third foundation, of which
we have to make mention here, was that of Lac La
Biche, in Alberta, 500 miles north from St. Boni-
face. Sisters Guenette, Daunais and Tisseur ar-
rived there on August 26, 1862, after a journey of
forty-nine days through the prairie.
54
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
Lac La Biche was for long a centre for the
Northern Missions, and after a time it became al-
most prosperous, but only through long and labor-
ious efforts, in which the Sisters had a large share.
Mother Charlebois, paying an official visit to their
Convent in 1880, wrote as follows: — "These dear
Sisters have aged very much. Their house is un-
healthy. Their wonderful industry has, however,
made many improvements. I found several cup-
boards of very curious shapes, but really service-
able all the same. Some of them have been made
by the Sisters themselves out of the boxes, in which
we send them supplies from time to time. I said
to the Sisters that they were scrupulously economi-
cal. One of them assured me gaily that poverty
is the surest economy. When I went into the
scullery, a miserable shed letting in all the winds
of heaven, an exclamation of surprise and sorrow
escaped me. But the Sisters only laughed. They
said, 'Oh, Mother dear, you should have been an
old-timer: we are in the lap of luxury nowadays'.
I said nothing in order not to betray my feelings."
In 1898, the Sisters removed from Lac la Biche
to Saddle Lake (also in Alberta) in order to be
near the Indians, whose children they were teach-
ing, and to leave no excuse for not sending the
children to their school. At present, there is an
excellent Indian Industrial School at Saddle Lake.
55
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Mother St. Gregoire is at the head of the teach^
ing staff, and Father Husson, O.M.I, is the Prin-
cipal.
The Convent of Lac La Biche has passed into
the hands of Les Fil/es de Jesus, of Kermaria in
Brittany. They teach the children of the numer-
ous settlers in their neighborhood.*
At the time of these several foundations, the
country round Lake St. Anne, Lac la Biche, and
(in part) He a la Crosse, formed the hunting
grounds of the Crees, a tribe which, like the
Sauteux and the Maskegons, is a branch of the
great Algonquin race. There has been since
then a great deal of immigration of the Palefaces,
who, however have not sought to injure the pros-
*Their congregation, founded by Abbe Noury and Mother St.
Angela, undertakes both school work, and hospital work. Until
1902, all the Sisters Avere Bretons, but they spread into several
European countries, and since 1902 they have Canadian and other
nuns amongst them. They have houses in seven dioceses in
Canada and the United States, and they are about 2,000 in number.
These Nuns of Kermaria were first brought to America by
Mgr. Legal, O.M.I., at the suggestion of Father Jan, O.M.I. Their
first home was in the Bishop's house at St. Albert, near the Con-
vent of the Grey Nuns, who received them with open arms, and
helped them to become acclimatized. They themselves wrote :
"At St. Albert the Grey Nuns are sisters indeed to us. There is no
feast in d'Youville Convent to which we are not invited. So we
are not treated as strangers in the Canadian West." When these
good nuns of Kermaria settled at Lac La Biche, they, like their
predecessors, suffered cheerfully, for the love of God and of the
poor, the many privations inseparable from their position.
56
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
pects of the Indians. Treaties have been made
between the Government of Canada and the In-
dians, by which, along with certain privileges,
exclusive rights of hunting, fishing, etc., are ac-
knowledged to belong to the Indians within their
own reserves.
The Crees, especially those of the Prairies,
in regard of whom the Grey Nuns of 1850 had to
exercise their zeal were thus described by the
late Bishop Lafleche, who had been the mission-
ary of He a la Crosse: "The Prairie Indians,
that is, the Blackfeet, the Assiniboines, the Crees,
and in considerable numbers the Sauteux, are
an abject race. I think it no exaggeration to say
that in them we find the very lowest ty^pe of
humanity. Their degradation and wickedness is
the result of their mode of life. They are mostly
in large camps of sixty or eighty, or more, wig-
wams. They lead an idle and wandering life, fol-
lowing the bufifalo, which supplies them abund-
antly with food and clothing. After seeing the dis-
gusting lives of those savages, one easily concludes
that work is a blessing, if also a penance, for fallen
man. If the Prairie Tribes form a sink of
iniquity; if robbery, and murder, and the most
shocking immorality, are events of every day for
most of them, it is because these barbarous beings
usually lead an idle life."
57
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Abbe Thibault evidently shared this opinion.
At a much earlier date, after an experience of some
years among the Prairie Crees, he wrote to Bishop
Provencher: "When the last buffalo is dead, it
may be possible to do something for the Prairies."
Such a view seems to have been too gloomy.
Robbery and murder and immorality are to be
found elsewhere than among the Pagan Red Men.
But the P.eligion of Christ has, always and every-
where, been able to raise up fallen human nature,
to crucify its vices and concupiscences, putting to
death its fruits of evil, and engrafting on the True
Vine whatever is living and healthy in human
nature purified and restored. The buffaloes were
still plentiful, when the Crees, under the influence
of divine grace, gave up, in numberless cases their
shameful customs. They learned, too, to be gentle
instead of quarrelsome. The sorceries of their
"medicine men" were given up by all except a
small and despised remnant. The Jled Men
learned to love their Black Robe. They followed
his teachings, and became his joy and his crown,
because standing fast in the Lord.
All honour to the Grey Nuns who have had so
large a share in civilizing and christianizing
the Indians! Even their silent presence has been
from the beginning a magnet, drawing away
thoughts from everything unworthy and of ill-
58
FURTHER WEST AND NORTH
repute. Here were women who must have been
chosen daughters of the Great Spirit, women who
were not slaves, nay, who were treated with par-
ticular respect by the Palefaces, by the Blackrobe,
and by the great Prayer Chief himself! But the
Nuns were by no means silent or inactive. Year
after year they were the patient planters of the
Gospel seed, in a soil not too ungrateful. They
have, and they will have, their reward exceeding
great.
St. Albert or Edmonton now forms for the
Grey Nuns a separate province from St. Boniface.
It is evidence of no small growth that this new pro-
vince already counts seven Convents, and over one
hundred nuns.*
*The Grey Nuns are, since 1884, in charge of a flourishing
Industrial School at Dunb6w, for the Blackfeet, the Piegans, the
Blood, Sarcee and Cree Indians.
Other communities of nuns have of late years come west,
to share in the labours of Mother d'Youville's Grey Nuns. The
Sisters of the Assumption, from Nicolet, came, at the request of
Mgr. Grandin, to labour among certain Cree tribes in Alberta and
Saskatchewan. They have charge of the schools at Onion Lake
(1891), Hobbema (1894), St. Paul des Metis (1897), and Delmas
(1900). This little Congregation was founded in 1853, with the
blessing and zealous assistance of Abbe Harper, parish priest of
Saint-Gregoire, an almost Acadian parish in Quebec Province. The
Acadians (so dear to Longfellow) have a special devotion to the
Assumption of our Blessed Lady. These Sisters of the Assumption,
in their lifty-nine houses, have about 600 nuns.
Other helpers came to Alberta in 1893, viz., the Grey Sisters
of Nicolet, who founded a hospital, and also a school, on the Blood
Reserve, and a school on the Piegan Reserve.
59
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Since 1903, the Sisters of the Presentation are in charge of
a great Industrial School for the Crees, which is under the
patronage of St. Michael, at Duck Lake, in the diocese of Prince
Albert. These Presentation nuns, so highly esteemed in Eastern
Canada, belong to a congregation founded in France, in 1796,
by the Venerable Mother Rivier, for the education of girls. The
Mother House remains from the beginning at Bourg-Saint-Andeol,
in the diocese of Viviers. The first house in Canada was founded
in 1853, at Sainte-Marie de Monnoir. On the Provincial House
of St. Hyacinthe (1858) are dependent 34 convents in Canada, and
20 in the United States, with about 800 nuns, and 16,000 pupils.
The Faithful Companions of Jesus went out from England
to the Northwest in 1883, at the request of Bishop Grandin. The
Mother House of those Sisters is at Sainte-Anne d'Auray in
Brittany. It was there that the Bishop, whose applications
in other quarters had failed, was told, to his great joy
and gratitude, "As it is a sacrifice your Lordship asks us
to make, we accept." But it was especially for English schools
that the Bishop was at that time trying to provide and there-
fore it was from the Boarding Schools in England which
the Faithful Companions conduct with so much distinction and
success, that were chosen the first members of that Order who
went to the Canadian Northwest. Their work in what are now-
the dioceses of Edmonton and Calgary will bear comparison with the
educational work of their convents at Upton Hall, Holt Hill,
Dee House, and elsewhere in England.
60
CHAPTER IV.
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
(1867)
Hitherto the reader has been making
acquaintance with the work of the Grey Nuns in
territories which are very much north, as well
as west, when compared with old or Eastern Can-
ada. We have been naming places about the
55th degree of north latitude, and in those prairie
provinces which," when carved out of the Wild
North Land of General Butler, received the 60th
degree for their northern boundary. But now we
have to follow the Canadian Sisters of Charity
still further north than even the 60th degree : to
follow them into those still unorganized, and for
the most part unexplored, territories, which con-
tain Great Slave Lake, Great Bear Lake, and the
Mackenzie River. It is the Far North, indeed,
where, nevertheless, one who knows sees familiar
names — Pius IX. Lake, Lake Tache, Lake
Grandin, Lake Fabre — sees and understands.
The Grey Nuns had been working for twenty-
three years at the Red River, and for six years still
further north and west, when they were begged
and prayed to come up higher. The separate
61
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Vicariate of Athabaska-Mackenzie, suffragan to
Mgr. Tache, Archbishop of St. Boniface, was
formed in 1862. Its first Bishop, Mgr. Faraud,
in spite of enormous difficulties, established it on
solid foundations. He was succeeded in 1891 by
Mgr. Grouard. In 1901 Athabaska was made one
Vicariate under Mgr. Grouard, O.Al.L, and Mac-
kenzie, another under Mgr. Breynat, O.M.I.
At the present time there remains one Convent
of the Grey Nuns in Athabaska, and there are four
in Mackenzie. These five form, since 1915, the
religious province of Mackenzie. The Sisters be-
gan to settle down amid the icy mountains of the
North in the early years of the Athabaska-Mac-
kenzie Vicariate. Mgr. Faraud, O.M.I., at once
appealed to them for help. Travelling is slow,
and posts are infrequent in those regions, even
nowadays. By 1866 the Nuns were ready to start.
They had made the same agreement as with Mgr.
Tache: "We will share the fate of the missionary
priests; like them we will pray and labour, and,
if so it must be, we will fast like them." They
left Montreal on September 17, 1866. They
reached Fort Providence, past Great Slave Lake,
on August 28, 1867.
It was at that same place, the Providence Mis-
sion, in the heart of the Mackenzie country,
that Father Grouard, who was to be the successor
62
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
of Mgr. Faraud, first heard that the Grey Nuns
were coming so far north. This venerable Bishop
lately told us frankly the impression made upon
him by the news: 'T said to myself, what hardi-
hood! Providence! But we ought not to tempt
Providence. How can those Sisters suddenly leave
their Convent at Montreal and come into these
desolate regions, to live among Indians whose con
version has only just begun? Will they ever
arrive? We have known of explorers. Govern-
ment officials, well supplied with all manner of
provisions, who were so delayed that they had to
eat the dogs which drew them. If the Sisters
ever arrive, how will they be able to live through
our terrible and long winters, without bread, with-
out anything? We can sometimes snare or shoot
a hare or a musk-rat. What will they do? So I
said to myself. But the Sisters came. They man-
aged to survive. And now they are keeping their
Golden Jubilee at Providence! Surely Provi-
dence has watched over them in a most special
way, and has blessed all their works, which are
the works of Sisters of Charity indeed."
These words of the Bishop suggest to us what
ought to be said in this chapter. In order to un-
derstand rightly what will afterwards be said
about the various foundations of the Nuns, it is
necessary first to know something about, ( 1 ) the
63
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Right Reverend Bishop E. Grouard,
O.M.I.. D.D.
Formerly \'icar Apostolic oi Athabaska-Macken-
zie. Since 1901, Vicar Apostolic of Athabaska.
64
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
Mackenzie country, (2) its Indian inhabitants,
and (3) the dietary with which the Nuns had to
be content at Fort Providence.
(1) "Few people — even Canadians — realize
that the Dominion of Canada is bounded on the
north by the Arctic Ocean: fewer still realize in
the slightest degree what that means. Perhaps
even it would be more correct to say that Canada
is 'bounded' on the north by the North Pole.
"North of the provinces of British Columbia,
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba there is a
tremendous territory — extending from the 60th
parallel to the Arctic Ocean and the islands there-
of: Victoria, Banks, Prince of Wales, North
Devon, Ellesmere, Melville, Baffin — 'islands' in
mere size comparable to, and some of them indi-
vidually greater than the entire area comprised in
the Maritime Provinces.
"These are the North-West Territories of
Canada. East or the Rocky Mountains, all of this
territory is on the Arctic or on the Hudson Bay
slope. The Yukon territory (west of the moun-
tains) drains into the North Pacific. The Mac-
kenzie River (the great highway of the north)
carries off to the Arctic the waters of Great Bear
Lake, Great Slave Lake, Lake Athabaska, with
tributary rivers rising as far south as the Yellow
Head Pass, almost due west of Edmonton. The
65
5
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
mighty Peace River, rising in British Columbia,
foaming through magnificent canyons, pierces the
Rockies to pour its flood into the already splendid
volume of Mackenzie (500,000 cubic feet per
second). The drainage area of the Mackenzie
and tributaries is estimated at 985,000 square
miles. . . . Great Slave Lake is about equal in
area to Ontario and Erie combined, and Great
Bear Lake to Lake Huron, including the Georgian
Bay.
"The Arctic Basin comprises 1,290,000 square
miles. The Hudson Bay basin alone comprises
1,486,000 square miles. The entire Atlantic basin
(of Canada), exclusive, of course, of Hudson Bay,
only 554,000 square miles."*
The Mackenzie country, the most northerly
inhabited part of the continent, a land eight times
as large as Great Britain and Ireland; in which
lakes and rivers are frozen for eight months of the
year; where communication is made between
fortsf one hundred to two hundred miles distant
from each other by lightly laden dog-sleds, was
the land to which the brave Nuns exiled them-
selves.
*C. C. McCaul, K.C. An Arctic Tragedy. Chap. 2.
tThe word Forf, still used in the North, has lost its old mean-
ing. It now stands for the residence of the officers and men of
the Fur Companies, the Mission, and some little houses or huts of
Half-Breeds and Indians.
66
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
Until recent times, every article even of prime
necessity, took a year to reach its destination in
Athabaska-Mackenzie. In the most distant Mis-
A Camp op "Slaves" Indians.
sions, if a letter were written asking or "ordering"
some needed article, two years would pass before
the arrival of what was sought. Purchases were
67
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
then made in Europe. Three years might easily
pass in some cases, owing to postal delays, or to
some mistake or neglect on the part of the agents
of the Hudson's Bay Company. When letters
were lost through some accident in flood or snow-
field, how much greater was the trying isolation of
the waiting and wanting correspondent in the
north country!
(2) The Indians, scattered through the Mac-
kenzie woods, and to whom the Grey Nuns have
made themselves the devoted Mothers in Christ,
belong to the great Dene family, of whom Father
Morice has written at considerable length. At
Lake Athabaska there are some Crees who are
clients of the Convent there.
The Northern Denes* include the Montagnais,
between Lake Athabaska and Great Slave Lake;t
*The Denes (i.e. ]\Ien, their own name for themselves) have
been from time immemorial in both the North and the South
of North America, thus surrounding other Indian families, without
intermingling. "Their most populous districts are to be found
in the South of the United States, where thej^ are known under
the name of Nabajoes and Apaches respectively." Hist. Cath.
Church, IV. Canada, by A. G. Morice O.AI.I., Vol. 1., p. 196. It will
be seen in the course of our narrative that the Northern Denes are
different in character from those Southerns, whose names have
such an evil sound.
tA considerable body of the Montagnais occupied the neighbor-
hood of Cold Lake and Heart Lake, Alberta, where in modern
times they chose their reserves. The Cold Lake reserve enjoys
since 1916, the advantage of a hospital and a school, both under the
care of the Sisters of Charitv. of Notre Dame d'Evron.
" 68
THE FAR NORTH INDKED!
the Sla-ves, to the west of Great Slave Lake and
along the Mackenzie River as far as Fort Simp-
son; the Hareskins, along the Lower Mackenzie,
and in particular near Fort Norman and Good
Hope; the Loucheux (meaning squint eyed, but
many people have a name which they do not de-
serve) near the Mackenzie delta; the Dog's Ribs
(Plats-C6tes-de-Chien), ranging from the north-
east of Great Slave Lake as far as Great Bear
Lake, and having Fort Rae, on the North Arm of
Great Slave Lake, as their base; the Castors
(Beavers), a tribe now almost extinct, on Peace
River. The Caribou Eaters, of Fond du Lac
(Lake Athabaska), and the Yellow Knives east
of Great Slave Lake, are of Montagnais descent.
There are children of every one of these tribes
in the institutions which are under the care of the
Grey Nuns. After a time, one can easily distin-
guish the tribal characteristics even in those chil-
dren. The general remark is sure to be made
that, the further north the Indians go, the more
sprightly, merry, frank and warm-hearted they
become.
Of all the Indian races with which missionaries
have had to deal in America, the Denes seem to
have been the most winning. It is true that their
pagan traditions had firmly established some in-
human customs among them, and that some traces
69
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
of these remain even after sixty years of Christian
preaching. But the Denes were at all times found
more straightforward, peaceful and religious than
their southern neighbours, the Crees. The Mis-
sionaries attribute this moral superiority to the
Denes' nomad life — which nearly always keeps the
members of the same family together, and there-
fore away from many occasions of sin — and also to
their many privations, which are always, even
when by no means wished for, a check upon evil
inclinations. It was with much good will and joy
that the poor Denes received the priest, who
brought them "the good Word" about a God,
made like unto themselves, and suffering and dy-
ing like them and for them.
The grossest faults of the Denes, when the
missionaries came amongst them, were polygamy,
and cruelty to women and children. They took
pride only in their sons. When a Montagnais used
a certain expression, it was only the circumstances
of the case which could show whether he meant
"my daughter" or "my dog." Beating their wives
every day, keeping them without food, and lay-
ing heavy loads upon their shoulders, and some-
times even killing little girls, were not considered
in any way wrong. The Christian religion did
not take very long to banish such barbarous
customs. The faults hardest to correct are sen-
70
THE FAR NORTH INDK?:D!
sitiveness, cowardice, never-ending and pitiless
tittle-tattle, brazen mendicancy, and the spend-
thrift mind, which never' thinks of to-morrow.
For the children of those Indians, and for
themselves, when prostrated by illness, the Grey
Nuns entered the Far North, and built their Con-
vents in various places during the last fifty years.
(3) But how was it found possible to build
those Convents, or to provide for their upkeep?
All the inmates — the children, the sick, and the
poor Nuns themselves, however mortified — had to
be fed and clothed, and kept warm, and medically
tended. In such a place, how and by what ways
and means was it found possible to supply the
needs of so many?
Let it be remembered that no help could be
expected from the Indians themselves of the Mac-
kenzie district. There are indeed other tribes, of
the same Dene race, in which the Christians quite
understand their duty of "supporting" those who
do them good. This is the case, for instance, at
He a la Crosse and the Missions of which it is the
centre, as well as in British Columbia. In those
places, the Indians, who, it must be said, are better
off than their brethren of Mackenzie, give the
Missionary some of the best fruits of their hunt-
ing or fishing expeditions. They also supply him
71
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
with firewood, and bring him from camp to camp
without payment. It must be acknowledged also
that even in Mackenzie the Missionary is assisted
when he has to visit the sick, and to follow the
scattered families into their wild woods. Of late
years, some of the tribes, especially in the neigh-
bourhood of Great Slave Lake, have begun to see
the meaning and the importance of a certain pre-
cept of the Church.
But, when all this has been said, it is necessary
also to record that even at this day in the Macken-
zie Missions the priests and Nuns are expected by
the poor Indians to be always givers, not receivers.
The Northern Indian is not himself a giver. On
the contrary he takes all that he can get. He
thinks it the most natural thing in the world that
the Palefaces should give him everything. And
he is perpetually begging whatever he wants or
fancies. If he sees a stock of provisions being
laid in before winter, he thinks the priests and nuns
unreasonable and avaricious. He knows that he
could easily dispose of the provisions this very
day. As for coming to the help of his Father in
God by tithe, or gift, or unpaid service, such an
idea never enters his head. Of course, as living
from hand to mouth, he is often miserably poor
himself. But if abundance comes to him through
fishing or the chase, it soun disappears, or the
72
THE FAR NORTH IXDKKD!
money for which he sells it. The lucky huntsman,
or fisherman, or trapper begins to feast sumptu-
ously. He gives a feast to his family, and to his
friends, and even to strangers. He takes it for
granted he will have as good luck another time.
If any of the spoils should happen to be wanted in
the Mission House or Convent even the smallest
portion must be paid for. The fact is that the
Indian looks upon Priests and Nuns as rich. He
says they have only to send a little bit of paper
into the "Great countries," and it will bring them
back a cargo. If you tell him that in those "great
countries" there are poor needlewomen who stint
themselves for his benefit; that the Society for the
Propagation of the Faith and the Holy Childhood
collect penny by penny, for the Indian missions,
sums which he would squander in an hour, he will
hardly believe or understand you. He will prob-
ably laugh and say, ''But I see you have such or
such a thing there; give me that.'' Such is the
childish mind of the Indian, though his intelli-
gence is very keen on some subjects. As regards
"mine and thine" he seems to be unteachable. He
is a communist bv nature. Whenever he has anv-
thing himself, he gives it away freely and cheer-
fully to the first that comes, of his own friends.
It must be repeated, however, that he has no feel-
ings of generosity in regard of those who leave
73
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
home and native land, to serve him at great cost.
The saintly Bishop Grandin forewarned the Nuns
vs^hom he was beseeching to come into his diocese:
"You will sacrifice yourselves for our poor
Indians; but you will receive from them nothing
but their vermin — for which also they would ex-
pect payment, if they thought you could make
any use of them." Some of them have asked the
Nuns to pay them for the children whom the Nuns
feed and clothe and teach.
Such being the state of things, how were the
missionary foundations made possible and endur-
ing?
The first answer to be given must name, with
deepest gratitude, the Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Faith. It was that great Society of
Paris and Lyons which made possible the evan-
gelization of the North. Even at this day, during
all the confusion and loss caused by the war, this
admirable Society finds means to continue its
noble and generous work.
A word of gratitude is also due to the Society
of the Holy Childhood, which has continued,
year after year, to help the struggling Missions
in the Northwest.
Likewise we would like to mention The Cath-
olic Church Extension Society of Canada and
74
THE FAR NORTH 1XDKP:D!
thank that noble body for the substantial help it
has, during these later years, accorded our difficult
endeavours, and which it still continues with un-
daunted generosity.
The Province of Quebec, it must be remem-
bered, has not been backward in her contributions,
and thus materially aided replenishing our fast-
vanishing funds.
But all these contributions put together could
not keep pace with the growing needs of the Mis-
sions, and especially of the Indian Industrial
Schools. For some years past, the Canadian Gov-
ernment has been paying a capitation grant for a
limited number of pupils. But the number of
pupils actually received is always much larger
than that fixed by the Government, and, besides,
the grant would not, in any case, suffice to meet
the cost of goods and carriage in a country of such
distances.
There remain, therefore two other resources
which have enabled the Catholic Missions to live.
They are the charity of individual benefactors,
and the manual labours of the Grey Nuns and the
Oblates. The Bishops, from time to time, go into
the "great countries" on questing expeditions. The
Nuns and the missionaries, remaining at their posts,
live sparingly, and add to their still rude build-
ings. They clear the soil, they dig and delve, and
75
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
on the surface of the earth (which remains always
frozen beneath the surface) they grow whatever
they are able to save from the frosts of summer
nights, and the dry heats and locusts of July days.
The alms given to the Bishops or others are
used to purchase a stock of articles (such as
groceries, cloth, household utensils, powder, shot,
tobacco, tea, etc.) which, in the primitive north,
can be exchanged for other things more needed.
Mgr. Breynat, the present Vicar Apostolic of
Mackenzie, has a farm near Fort Smith (which
is on the Salt River, at the northern boundary of
Alberta), from which, with the assistance of the
little farm-yards at Fort Resolution and Fort
Providence, it is possible to supply a limited
quantity of provisions to the scattered Missions.
But some butcher's meat, of which there is near-
ly always time to forget the taste, and the produce
of a little garden in a lucky season, and some
preserved foods, all these together would not
suffice to carry the communities and schools
through the prolonged northern winters. It is
chiefly upon their own labours in hunting, trap-
ping and fishing, that the hungry have to rely in
those desolate regions.
Meat may be provided by Indian hunters,
and it is used when fresh, or dried, or smoked.
But it is not always easily found, and sometimes
76
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
the poor hunter has to rove the woods so long,
before what he seeks comes suddenly in his way
that he faints, or perhaps perishes from hunger.
It is fish, however, that is the principal food
of the North: fish of various kinds, trout, white-
fish, Mackenzie salmon, pike, carp, herring, etc.
Such fish of the North, even without dressing or
sauce, but simply cooked in its own juice, is quite
tasty and nourishing. The goodness of God has
provided abundance of this palatable food in the
very poorest and most barren of the waste places
of the world.
But it is no easy task to secure and to preserve
the needed quantity of this food. How many
stories the Oblate Fathers and brothers have to
tell of nets swept away by storms, of unwished-for
ebb and unwished-for tide, of the late arrival of
the migrating shoals, of the sudden beginning of
winter, of such frost as in one night, perhaps in
one hour, leaves the fish-laden boats ice-bound
far away from the banks! One of the Autumn
months is given up to fishing, when the school
or shoal is making for the centre of the great lakes,
or for the Arctic Sea. Great quantities are then
taken, carried home to the perhaps distant Mission
House, stored up out of reach of the hungry dogs,
and in a place where the thaw will not quite spoil
the store. Let it be remembered that the dogs also
11
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
must be fed on fish, and that the dogs take the
place of horse and donkey in the frozen north.
Suppose then a large community, a house full of
children with Indian appetites, and a good team
of indispensable four-footed servants who draw
• the sledge, and we shall not be surprised to hear
that 25,000 fishes are not too many for the yearly
supply of one establishment. But if the autumn
fishing is a failure, or if the harvest of the sea
is only a poor one. or if the frost has been later than
usual, and the stock of fish gets very "high", then
comes, for many, a harder task than that of ''the
Pilot of Galilean Lake,'' for they are obliged,
day by day for months, in sixty or eighty degrees
of frost, to say "I go a-fishing", and to entice the
daily food from under two, or four, or six feet
of ice.
The Mother General of the Grey Nuns re-
ceived some years ago a letter which may be quoted
here as telling once for all some of the hardships
and privations accompanying the struggle for daily
food in the far North. The letter was written in
December 1897, by the Reverend Father Lecorre,
now invalided, though not inactive, but in 1897 the
very active priest in charge of the Mission at Fort
Providence. He wrote: ''The untimely frost
played us a very mean trick in the autumn. As
a rule, our fishing continues until the middle of
78
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
October. But this year, in the end of September,
a fierce snow-storm from the north froze up our
fishing grounds, and swept away nearly all our
nets. We tried to think that milder weather would
return. Vain hope! The masses of ice continued
to float and drift upon the great river, and the
snow was heaped up to a great height, so that
Fishing Through Holes in the Ice.
we had to be content with 8,000 fishes instead of
20,000, the least number that we need. You under-
stand what all this means — fishing all through the
winter, almost every day, at Big Island (Grande-
Ile), forty miles away from the Mission. What
sufferings for our poor Brothers, on the frozen
lake, amid the driving snow! What fatigues for
those with the sledges! And how short-handed
79
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
we are here, for all the work at home! And will
the fishing under the ice succeed? We do not yet
know. Sometimes in a severe winter, there is no
fish to be caught at Big Island".
As this letter shows, the principal fishermen
of the Mackenzie Missions are our Oblate Broth-
ers. They have kept the Northern Convents alive.
True religious, and true missionaries, these dear
Brothers, in imitation of St. Joseph, consecrate
their lives to hidden and lowly labour, and they
look for no reward in this world. It is they also
who build the huts or houses, who collect the
enormous quantities of wood required for fuel,
who man the boats in the summer season, work the
saw-mills, and supervise the men employed. In
the winter when an Indian hunter wants to sell
the moose or reindeer, which he has dispatched in
the forest, he describes the place where he left
it — perhaps a week before — he is paid, and off
he goes. The Brother then harnesses his dogs,
fastens on his snow shoes, and sets out to retrieve
the precious purchase. How many a sensational
storv each of those brave Brothers is able to tell
of his experiences on such journeys— of snow
driven not in flakes, but in fine dust, of hidden
holes in the snow field, of a snow heap which gives
way under the feet like shifting sand, and of cold
winds piercing to the marrow! Let it be said,
80
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
however, that a visitor to the Northern Missions,
will be most likely to find an Oblate priest or
Bishop beside the Brother, whenever fishing, or
carting, or wood cutting, or building, or the like,
has to be done.
And now what of the Nuns., who are the most
worthy of honourable mention? Even in manual
labour the Grey Nuns of Mackenzie have not
spared themselves. They have dug up stumps and
roots, clearing many a glade in the forest; they
have tilled, and sown, and gathered. Some of
them have even turned their hands to building
operations, and all kinds of useful work. Sister
Michon wrote from Providence in 1892, after the
departure of Sister Ward: "As we have no one
now to accompany the singers, I have begun to
learn how to play. It is not easy at fifty years of
age, but I hope to succeed, though not particularly
well, for my fingers are not so pliant as they were
thirty years ago. I am handier with hatchet or
saw, in household work, and cabin building, than
with a note of music. But in this poor country, so
far away from assistance of any kind, we must
only do the best we can."
In the beginning, and for many years, the
Sisters used to go from Fort Providence to the
autumn fishing. Their little camp was pitched
in a suitable spot, on the shore. As a rule, they had
81
6
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Mass every day. Whilst attending duly to their
religious exercises, the Sisters busied themselves,
all through the fishing season, preparing the meals,
mending the nets, and dressing the fish taken. In
a word they shared most cheerfully the labours,
privations, risks, and disappointments, of those who
were trying to keep a struggling Mission alive.
One of the many disappointments and trials in
which they shared only too fully, is connected with
St. Edward's day 1903. The fishing season at
Big Island had been quite a success. The cargo
was in the flat boat. The current would carry all
hands to the Mission, forty miles away. Along
with the Nuns, were Brother Mark and Brother
Olivier, and the Superior, Father Edward Gouy.
What could be more promising than to make a
start for home in the evening of the Superior's
feast day, October 13? After three or four hours'
sailing, the boat began to find itself among small
blocks of ice, driven after them by the wind from
Great Slave Lake. These little icebergs moved,
and the boat moved too. But in a little time the
boat stopped dead : it was the prisoner of the ice
floes. When daylight came, the travellers found
themselves fast-bound amid the Willow Islands,
all the waters, as far as the eye could reach, being
now frozen over. What was to be done? Nothing
82
THE FAR NORTH INDEED
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THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
except to wait without shelter, and in bitter cold,
until the ice was strong enough to bear. After a
wait of one day, the travellers, invoking their
Guardian Angels, trusted themselves on the trem-
bling ice, and brought their tent to the nearest
island. There they remained four days, mean-
while making, with their hatchets, a passage from
the boat into Beaver (Castor) Lake, (A larger
expansion of the MacKenzie) which they thought
still free from ice. When this very laborious and
risky work was done, they tried to move the boat,
but it was fast anchored by its own weight in the
deep ice. There remained nothing now to be done
except to save their own lives, and to get away.
They took their small fishing boats along the
channel which had cost them so much, only to
find that Beaver Lake too was frozen! They had
to return to their island, and to spend a fifth night
there. Next day, the whole company, abandoning
all their precious provisions, set out to walk to
Fort Providence, along the frozen waters, and
through the wild woods.
Such is the dear country — dear, precisely^ be-
cause of the sacrifices which it imposes — the dear
country into which God called our devoted Grey
Nuns half a century ago, and in which until now
they alone, with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
84
THE FAR NORTH INDEED!
have been the messengers of God's mercies to those
of whom the world makes no account.*
*The Grey Nuns will be only pleased to find here mention
of the Sisters of Providence. These Sisters have never seen
the Mackenzie, nor Lake Athabaska, but in the Peace River
country, and in Alaska, they have spread quickly. Between 1894
and 1912 they founded the Indian institutions at Grouard (Lesser
Slave Lake), St. Augustine (Peace River and Smoky River), Ver-
milion, Lake Wabaska, Sturgeon Lake, and St. Bruno. In Alaska,
the Sisters of Providence have charge of the hospitals and schools
at Fairbanks, and Nome.
The Sisters of St. Anne, whose Mother-House is at Lachine,
near Montreal, have charge of both school and hospital at Dawson,
in Yukon Territory, and at Holy Cross.
These various foundations, of Peace River, Alaska, and Yukon,
though much later, and, by comparison, less difficult, than the
foundations made by the Grey Nuns, have, nevertheless, demanded
many sacrifices, and have been very meritorious in the sight of
God.'
85
CHAPTER V.
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL, FORT PROVIDE.XCE
(iSdy-iQij)
Providenxk Mission was founded by Bishop
Grandin in 1861.* Mgr. Tache had asked him to
choose a central place in which the Bishop to be
appointed for Athabaska-Mackenzie might fix
his residence, and where a Convent might be
founded. "Without Nuns," said Mgr. Tache, "we
shall not be able to do any permanent good in these
Missions."
Mgr. Grandin considered that the best "central
place" would be North of Great Slave Lake.
Then he asked himself if Big Island (Grande-Ile
or Grosse-Ile) would serve. This island, just at the
point where Great Slave Lake, pouring its waters
towards the North, forms the Mackenzie river, was
the resort of the Indians in the spring time and in
the fall. Already in 1858, Father Grollier had
*This was the onh- occasion on which Mgr. Grandin as Bishop
visited Athabaska-lNIackenzie. His visit, during which he had to
suffer a great deal, lasted three jears and two months (1861-4").
See Vie de Mgr. Grandin, by Fr. Jonquet O.M.T. Such was
the odour of sanctity, in which the first Bishop of St. Albert lived
and died, that the cause of his Beatification has been brought
before the Holv See.
• 86
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
founded there the Mission of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, which was visited b}^ the Mission-
aries once or twice every year. But Big Island was
sometimes flooded; it grew very little wood; and
the soil was such that it could never supply the
needs of an orphanage, or any considerable number
of persons. Bishop Grandin therefore resolved to
try elsewhere, feeling sure that the Indians would
follow where the Blackrobes led.
Following the course of the Mackenzie for
forty miles, he came, at the foot of a long rapid,
and on the right bank of the river, upon a well-
wooded headland of even surface, and fertile soil,
stretching out a tapering point towards a surround-
ing semi-circle of isles and islets in the broad
Mackenzie.
At the side of this headland was a sloping
channel, forming a very good landing place for
boats.* Here Bishop Grandin landed, and duly
taking possession of the spot for a central Mission,
he planted there a large Cross, made by Brother
Kearney. He wrote to Mgr. Tache : "I have called
the place La Providence, for I believe it destined
to be the Providence of our northern Missions.
If we had a little community here, we could easily
*In the early days, this Httle harbour was full of fish. But
it was soon exhausted, and for fishing on a large scale it became
necessary to return to Big Island.
87
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
from this centre visit all this north country". It
may be mentioned here that in 1915 the Rev.
Father Belle, Visitor General of the Mackenzie
Missions, gave this Mission the name "Notre
Dame de la Providence." The official name of the
place in civil documents is Fort Providence, for,
in this particular instance, the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, usually first in the field, was content to fol-
low the missionaries and their Indians, and to
accept the name already given.
The first years at Providence — 1861-3, before
the coming of the Nuns — were years of the great-
est poverty and hardship. The history of those
years will, please God, be told in later times. As
soon as Bishop Grandin had provided what was
absolutely necessary to give food and shelter to the
Missionary Fathers, he turned his attention to the
building of a house to shelter the Nuns. The
winter of 1863-4 was given up to this work. The
Hudson's Bay Company assisted, lending the ser-
vices of some of their men. The Bishop's special
duty was to bring the wood — of course with the
help of the dogs — from an island just in front of
the headland. Father Grouard (now Bishop),
Brother Alexis, and the hired men squared the
timber, preparing it for its various purposes in
walls and roof and floor. By way of laying the
first stone of the building, Bishop Grandin drove
89
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
in the first peg. Father Grouard drove the second.
Nails were quite unknown in the Far North, at
that date.
In 1865, Mgr. Faraud, the new Bishop, the first
Vicar Apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie, visited
Fort Providence. He found the house intended
for the Nuns almost ready. He had a very skilful
hand himself, and he set to work to make the furn-
iture for the new house, whilst leaving all detailed
household arrangements to be made by the Sisters
themselves when they came. The house being now
ready for them, five of the Grey Nuns set out for
the Far North. They were Sisters Lapointe
(Superior), Brunelle, Michon, St. Michael, and
Ward. A courageous Franciscan Tertiary, Marie
Domithilda Letendre, accompanied them. They
left the Mother House, Montreal, on September
17, 1866, on their way to St. Boniface (Red
River), where they were to spend the winter.
They were accompanied by Mgr. Tache, who had
gone to Montreal, in order to have some voice in
the selection of those who were to begin the new
foundation. By 1866 railroads were spreading in
many directions, and these travellers passed
through the United States, reaching St. Paul in
Minnesota by train from Chicago. At St. Paul
they were met by Red River carts, but unfortun-
ately w^e have no record of the pleasures or pains of
90
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
their journey in those carts over the 500 miles
which separate St. Paul, Minnesota from St. Boni-
face, Manitoba. Was the so-called road between
the two places any better in 1866 than in 1852,
when Mgr. Tache and Fathers Lacombe and Grol-
lier were the first to trust themselves to the same
track? "The road was dreadful," Mgr. Tache
wrote. '*You should have seen a poor Bishop, and
two Priests, up to their waists in the mud, tugging
and drassins: in their efforts to lift horses and carts
out of the same mud. And this not merely once
in a while, but hundreds of times on our journey."
The Missionary Sisters spent the winter of
1866-7 very happily with their Sisters at St. Boni-
face! Yet they were anxious to go forward to their
own work in their own place. Sister Lapointe
wrote: "We wanted to be on our way to our own
poor home, whose desolate and destitute conditions
had more attraction for us than all the rich and
pleasant places in the world." Sister Lapointe and
Sister Ward have fortunately left us in writing
portion of the history of those early days, which
it is our happiness to be able now to utilize in
these pages. The lines written by the light of an
oil lamp, in the first Mackenzie winter, now form
an honourable memorial of the past fifty years
of the missionary labours of the devoted Grey
Nuns.
91
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
The travellers to the north knew at St. Boni-
face that Bishop Faraud had come 450 miles,
from Lake Athabaska to Lac la Biche (north east
of the present Edmonton), to meet them, and ac-
company them to Providence Mission. Hence
they felt regret that unforeseen delays kept them
still at the Red River, whilst the Bishop was wait-
ing for them at La Biche. There had been terrible
prairie fires that spring, as Archbishop Tache
afterwards explained. It was absolutely necessary
to let the grass grow again before the ox-carts
could be used, for the oxen have to feed on what
they find. Moreover the weather was exception-
ally bad, and the track was much worse than usual.
In one caravan alone 250 animals (oxen or horses)
were lost through hardships of the road and the
bites of mosquitoes.
At last on June 8, 1867, the Nuns set out on
their journey of 910 miles from St. Boniface. The
first part of their journey was by bullock carts
without springs, along the track which passed
through Portage-la-Prairie, Qu'Appelle, Carlton,
and Fort Pitt, crossing hundreds of torrents and
streams, when the carts had sometimes to be taken
to pieces, and turned into boats.
The Sister Superior's own manuscript says: —
"At last we left St. Boniface on June 8, under
a heavy downpour of rain, lasting all day, by way
92
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
of heaven's blessing on our work. The depth of the
mud was really alarming. At one point, I was
afraid a member of my little flock was going to be
left behind, for Sister Ward, not being a very good
walker, sank so far that it took a very strong arm
to lift her out. Yet we were all happy at having
made a start. The first day, we went no farther
than Saint Francois-Xavier, where we intended to
rest that night. The unceasing rain kept us there
for three days. It seemed as if the deluge had
come again, and the flood-gates of heaven were
opened. There was quite a foot of water every-
where. We thought that we must be having our
worst experiences in the beginning, and that
everything would be bright and pleasant later on.
We looked forward to the great prairies, undulat-
ing like the waves of the sea; we saw in imagina-
tion the flowers, and the blossoms, and we
thought that the fruits too would be ours before
the end of our long journey. Oh, how deceitful
is fancy! The rain kept falling every day. It
lasted ten, twelve, even fifteen consecutive days,
ceasing only for some rare moments when the sun
pierced the clouds, and seemed to be heaping coals
of fire upon our heads. What hardship in our
going, what little rest in our halts! Many a
time we made our beds on the bare ground, on a
marshy soil, our blankets, our cloaks, and all our
93
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
belongings, having been steeped in rain all through
the day. And yet the nights were so cold. But
away with all delicacy, and all fear! I naturally
thought that our health might suffer seriously from
all that we had to go through. God be praised,
we were nothing the worse after all our little
sufferings and privations. He for whom we make
these sacrifices keeps us as the apple of His eye:
not one of us has had the slightest illness. To me
it looks like a miracle, and I wish my feeble voice
could reach all intelligent creatures, calling on
them to give praise and thanks to our God, who
so watches over and sustains His children, when
they cast all their care upon Him.
Rain and cold were not at all our greatest trials
in this long journey. How many times we were
delayed on the banks of a stream or torrent, waiting
for the deep waters to flow away! Very often
there was no ford to be found, and, of course,
there was no boat or barque in those wild and de-
sert regions. We sometimes waited for two or
three days, in places where the crossing takes only
a few minutes, when the weather is fine. Tn such
cases, however, it was a pleasure to see the won-
derful ingenuity of our drivers. In a twinkling,
with great sheets of parchment, they turned our
carts into boats, fastened a rope to either end, and
kept drawing them to and from either bank, until
94
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
all the luggage had gone over. Then it was the
turn of the Sisters, for whom the important point
was not to change the centre of gravity. The least
mistaken move might have given us a bath of
muddy water. Thank God, we came safely
through all our difficulties. I do not know how we
could have done so, or how we could ever have
Holy Mass in a Tent.
continued our journey at all, if it had not been for
the special help and protection which God's good
Providence sent us. If we had hardly the right
to expect such help, it has made us all tlie more
grateful. The Rev. Father Lacombe (that old
and experienced voyageur of the prairies) had
95
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
reached St. Boniface during the winter so as to
be with us from the beginning of our journey to-
wards the north. Mgr. Tache had appointed Rev.
Father Leduc to be with him, and we could not
possibly have better guardians. This is not the
place to tell how much we owe them. God Al-
mighty, who knows, will be sure to reward them.
Our journey as far as Lac La Biche, lasted from
June 8 to July 31. Of the hundred incidents, great
and small, of that long journey, the story of one
will give a sufficient idea.* It was July 30, and
according to our own pre-arranged time-table, we
*One incident, not mentioned by the Sister Superior, but told
now in our own dny, by Father Leduc and Sister Domithilda, ought
to be chronicled here. One day, during a halt on the banks
of the English river, between Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt, whilst
Sister Ward was l)usy in the tent, and the other Sisters were gath-
ering wild fruits. Sister Domithilda was cooking dinner in the open
air. Suddenly her clothes caught fire, and she was a living torch.
Father Leduc, along with Father Maisonneuve (who had joined
the party at Carlton), quickly used all the blankets, etc., within
reach in an endeavour to put out the flames. They were not suc-
ceeding, when Father Leduc spied a pail of milk, still smoking,
fresh from the cow, and emptied it upon the poor victim. Father
Maisonneuve's hands were so burnt that he was unable to say
Mass for a fortnight, and the Nun's hands and face bore many
scars. She tells nowadays how Father Leduc, "having extinguished
her" with the precious liquid, said, "I should not like to be any-
where near }ou in purgatory: the fire makes you scream too much".
The brand from the burning, the victim of the accident, having
quickly recovered all her wits, answered at once with a laugh, "But,
Father, don't you see you would get out all the sooner?"
96
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
ought to have been at Lac la Biche on the fifteenth,
at the latest. We had heard at Fort Pitt that Mgr.
Faraud was waiting for us at La Biche since June
25. We could not help feeling very uneasy, not
knowing whether the Company's barges might not
have gone forward, obliging the Bishop to take
his return passage northward. However, we were
hoping to reach La Biche on the morrow, and we
wished for wings to carry us there in all haste.
We rose at 1 a.m., and we were on the way at
3 a.m. We had to pass through a forest, over a
winding track of deep ruts and clinging mud. All
the morning we kept moving on, at what seemed
a snail's pace. We were very silent, and rather
disconsolate, having no idea of the distance, and
wondering if we could arrive before night. Sud-
denly, at a turn in the road, which brought us out
of a dark part of the forest, we saw two horsemen
galloping towards us. What knights were these?
Were they on the war path? Were these martial-
looking figures enemies of ours, appearing now in
the very last stage of our land journey? Oh,
blessed surprise ! In a moment we were down from
the carts, and kneeling for the blessing of our
Bishop. It was he (Mgr. Faraud) with Father
Vegreville. They had determined to come for-
ward, and not to return without finding out for
themselves the cause of our long delay. You can
97
7
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
imagine our feelings then. The Bishop, giving
us a fatherly benediction, glanced round sharply
to see for himself that every one of us was present,
and every one of usJn good health. How this kind
father and pastor thanked God, who had watched
over us, and had brought us safe and sound through
so many dangers. For ourselves we seemed to have
risen to a new life ! No more anxiety or trouble for
us! Under the pastoral staff of a beloved Father,
the little ones of the flock have only to march on
as they are guided.
In a few hours after meeting the Bishop, we
were in the arms of our Sisters of the Lac La Biche
Convent, finding that they had shared the Bishop's
anxiety about our long delay. A few days' rest
with them seemed necessary after our fatigues,
but, when one is late, one has to hasten, trying to
make up for lost time. Only half our journey was
over, and not at all the more dangerous half.
Hitherto, we had contended with mud; we were
now to become acquainted with rivers, and lakes,
and dangerous rapids, and to follow an unexplored
route, without having strong arms enough to deal
with its difficulties and dangers.*
*Until 1867, the two routes to Mackenzie were from Hudson
Baj% or from Winnipeg, b}' the Lakes and rivers which meet at
La Loche Portage. From this Portage the vojageur descended
the Clearwater river to MaclMurray. on the Athabaska river, thus
avoiding the rapids of the Athabaska, to the south of MacI^Iurray.
98
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
Indeed, we left everything in the hands of our
dear and venerated Bishop and Father. It seemed
to us we could not be shipwrecked in his com-
pany. It was a special trouble to him that we
were bringing more things with us than could
well find room in such a boat as we had. How-
ever, what God guards is well guarded. At three
o'clock in the morning of August 3, 1867, we were
all afoot and busy. After solemn Benediction of
the Blessed Sacrament, we said a rather sor-
rowful good-bye to our Sisters, and, in presence of
nearly all the people of the place, we set sail.
At first, everything went on beautifully. It
was charming to watch our boat ploughing the
limpid waters of Lac la Biche, and the little rivers
The first who took the unexplored route from La Biche to Mac-
Murray was Mgr. Tache in 1856. When Mgr. Faraud, in 1867,
followed the same route with the Grey Nuns, he had far greater
difficulties to overcome. ]\Igr. Tache went in the spring, in a light
canoe, when the water was high. But in the autumn the rapids and
cascades are more than ever rocky and treacherous. Mgr. Faraud,
foreseeing this, had persuaded Mr. Christie, the Company's officer
at Lake La Biche, to delay one of the barges, so that it might travel
along with that which the Bishop had hired, and that each crew
might help the other. But the Bishop's party had been kept 26
days waiting at Lake La Biche The provisions had all been used up.
The river was falling every day at an alarming rate. The Indians
had grown impatient to be ofif. Mgr. Faraud was obliged, there-
fore, to let the Company's boat start without waiting for him.
He knew well what additional dangers he and his boatmen and the
Nuns would have to meet with. This explains the words of the
Sister Superior in the text.
99
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
which flow out of it, and it was hard to understand
any anxiety about the rest of the voyage. At night
came the rain, an unwelcome downpour. But we
had a pretty good tent for camping out. The rain
did us no great harm, and we even listened with
pleasure to the murmuring of a little stream of
Passing Through Thousands of Rocks.
rain-water, running quite close to us, yet not harm-
ing us in the least. The morning was delightful,
a good breeze having driven the clouds far away.
We sailed along quietly on a stream bordered with
trees which looked lovely in the rays of the rising
sun. At eight o'clock, we had to begin our day
of sacrifices. In order to make them easier to
100
THK SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
bear, our good Bishop olfered up the Holy Sacri-
fice of the Altar, and gave us Holy Communion,
the food that makes the heart strong, so that it
seemed to us as if we might, like Elias, walk for
forty days and nights and feel no fatigue.
We had stopped near a rapid. Now, in these
northern climes, people do as in towns that are
besieged. They send away the useless mouths. As
the water was low, our guide told us that our ab-
sence would be welcome at this point. The Bishop
set 0& before us, to walk through the wood. We
followed as well as we were able, whilst the boat-
men dragged the boat along from rock to rock.
There is no unmixed pleasure in this world. It
was a pleasure to follow in the Bishop's foot-steps,
but the high grass was so sodden with rain that,
in a little while, our habits were so heavy and
clinging about us, that we could hardly move at
all. And at the same time a hot sun was beating
down upon our heads. Going as we could, and
stopping now and then to take breath, we walked
that day about six miles. We were very glad in-
deed when invited to take our seats in the boat once
more. We had discovered that courage is not the
same as strength: we were quite exhausted.
Next day we felt sure that there could be no-
thing before us so trying as that march in the
Bishop's steps. We were chatting very cheerful-
101
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
ly, when there was a sudden order to stop. The
boat could take us no further. From the point
where we were, down to the Athabaska River
(about 60 miles), there was a succession of little
rocky rapids, where the shallows made it impos-
sible for a heavily-laden boat to go. What was
to be done? The best thing probably would have
been to make two journeys on each such occasion.
But our Indian boatmen said they were too tired,
and that when once they went down a rapid they
would not bring the boat back. Were we then to
throw away half of our stores, or to walk once
more? The things that we had brought so far
had cost us much trouble and expense. We re-
solved to save them, and to be foot-passengers
again. What we had now before us was no longer
mere trudging through wet prairies for a few
hours. We had now to make up our minds to
walk on, for two or three days, sometimes through
dense forest, sometimes over steep river-banks,
sinking in the mud at every step, having to cross
multitudes of tributary streams, and losing our-
selves in thickets which showed no way out.
The dear Bishop went before us, with hatchet
in hand, clearing such pathway as could be cleared,
cutting down trees, and throwing temporary
bridges over the ravines. But all his efforts on
our behalf did not prevent us from becoming
102
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
absolutely breathless from fatigue. I was dis-
tressed to notice that some of the Sisters would
not be able to hold out for long. However, we
kept moving all the morning. ' Counting the wind-
ings in and out, we had done about fifteen miles.
We were no longer in sight of the river, and so
we could not tell whether our boatmen were ahead
of us or were still behind. At last, through sheer
exhaustion, we stopped to rest. We lighted a great
fire, and in a little while we heard the cries of our
men on the river bank, who, with a strong pull,
all together, were dragging the boat through the
water. Though not very valiant, we had got be-
fore them, after all.
At this place the boatmen halted, took a good
meal and prepared to start again. I had to ask
them to take Sister Ward on board. They agreed,
on condition that she would pray to the "Great
Spirits" for a favourable journey. Certainly,
from the time of her going on board, the vessel
went along very smoothly, hardly touching ground
or rock anywhere. But for us, who tried to fol-
low through the brushwood, things were less pleas-
ant. We had not by any means recovered from
the fatigues of the morning. The boatmen were
far ahead of us; we screamed until they heard us.
They stopped and waited. We had walked about
six miles more. There was nothing for it but to
103
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
go on board. But no sooner were we there than
the barge grounded. The boatmen were obliged
to carry the luggage on their shoulders. So it was
Indians and Half-Breeds Towing a B.\rgE.
that in two or three hours we had advanced only
half a mile. Everybody feeling fatigued, we
104
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
camped out for the night somewhat earlier than
usual. What would the morrow bring us?
Sleep is the kind restorer, and the night some-
times drives all cares away. All that particular
night the rain came down heavily; the flashes of
lightning were frequent, and the thunder shook
the earth beneath us. We arose with aching sides,
and stifif and feverish limbs. We trembled to think
of what might be before us. But blessings and
hardships come together; the heavy rain had made
the river rise, and so we were told that all might
now come on board. Thereafter, our barge went
on smoothly, for the most part, and was easily
managed by the boatmen in certain difficult parts
of the river. However, we had to walk occasion-
ally, but not for so long, nor under such condi-
tions as on previous days.
After our third day of anxiety and fatigue, we
saw at last the Athabaska River, which promised
us two or three days of smooth sailing. This river
has its own dangers, but we were able at first to
enjoy the innocent pleasure of feasting our eyes
upon scenery truly grandiose. The fast-running
Athabaska carried us along towards the north, as
if by enchantment, whilst giving us time to ad-
mire the picturesque and varied spectacles which
every turn of the river presented. It was a pleasure
too great to last.
10.=;
THE GREY NUNS IX THE FAR NORTH
We thought we had gone" through a great deal
already, but we had only made a beginning: we
had only served a little apprenticeship. One day,
about two o'clock in the afternoon, we heard in
the distance a booming, monotonous noise, seeming
to come from the river. As far as the eye could
reach there was nothing to account for the sound.
I asked what it might mean, and I was advised to
wait and see. In two hours we had reached Grand
Rapid.* At this place enormous rocks form an
island in mid-stream. The waters on both sides
fall into depths, on which one cannot look with-
out growing dizzy. How our hearts beat high as
we approached the island, for it was on that island
that we had to land, at the very spot where the
divided waters race madly to either side. One
wrong turn of the oar might have sent us headlong
*Mgr. Faraud has left the following description of Grand
Rapid. "The Athabaska in this place is as wide and deep as the
Rhone. On both banks tower monstrous beetling crags which seem
threatening to fall upon the traveller. From the same heights,
in the course of time, and under pressure of ice, great masses of
rock have actually fallen, and now form in mid-stream an island
in which great pine trees grow. The current, which is very strong
even above the island, gains enormous force at each side of the
obstacles, and when the two streams meet, after forming man}' cas-
cades, the}- come together with a roar, and throw up waves many
feet high. The noise of these waters, harsh and terrifying, is not
less than that of a hundred cannon firing at the same moment."
Mgr. Faraud, when going to meet the Grey Nuns, narrowly
escaped from drowning in those high waves below the island,
through which the Nuns passed with closed eyes.
106
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
down the rapid, but our skilful guide brought the
boat safely, away from either current, into a little
landing-place between two rocks. There we got
out, and passing from one trunk of a tree to another
we were on the island, saying a fervent Deo
Gratias. The men, not without much labour, car-
ried all the luggage to the other extremity of the
island, a distance of half a mile. But the barge
remained. This could not be carried. It had to
be drawn. The man-power was unequal to the
task. The Bishop, looking very grave, came to
ask us to bear a hand. We were harnessed two and
two, and our additional help was such that the
barge was successfully brought to the further end
of our island. This was "portaging," indeed! As
the Bishop had charged us not to pull hard, lest
we might hurt ourselves, no harm was done, though
we were fatigued, and the boatmen gaily compli-
mented us on not having broken our collars. But
I should have liked some of our Montreal friends
to see us. Five Grey Nuns in harness! What a
pretty picture!
So far, so good. Our next task was to get away
from the island, and from the rapid. Whilst our
boat danced up and down upon the waves, it was
loaded with all the luggage, and then we ourselves
got in. Moving off was really frightening. It
seemed as if we were rushing to certain dea'th. In
107
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
order not to see those raging waters we closed our
eyes. In a few seconds we opened them, to find
that the danger spot was past. After that experi-
ence, we were less afraid, or, at least, we could
face the danger without growing pale. Indeed,
some of the Sisters professed to enjoy shooting the
rapids. Well, for the lesser ones it may be so. But
they are of all sorts and sizes. One afternoon we
climbed up a hill to gather saskatoons, of which
there was a great abundance. As we were hur-
ried, and as the fruit is small, we broke ofif some
branches and brought them away to the boat. Just
as we were eating our delicious fruit, the beat
leaped into a rapid; the iron cutwater, striking a
rock, was broken in pieces with a loud noise; the
boat was shaken as the branches of a tree are
shaken; and we in an instant were down in the
whirling waters. What a fright we had! The
fruits fell from our hands. Of course we screamed.
Our hearts beat rapidly, and the perspiration
streamed down our faces. People sometimes speak
of being only frightened, and not hurt. But, half
an hour after our fright, some of the Sisters were
still so hurt as to be hardly able to breathe. This
sudden descent put an end to all boasts about en-
joying the rapids. However, it was the last of our
difficulties on the Athabaska River.
After passing MacMurray, we no longer
108
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
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o
is
109
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
landed at night. The boat was allowed to drift,
and we rested as best we could. I saw the Bishop
among the bales of goods. The side of a large
stove was his mattress; a rough box for the north
was his pillow. The space between decks was re-
served for us. It was not a very roomy place. One
had to pillow her head upon the feet of another.
Perhaps these two nights between decks were the
worst nights we had.
On August 13, 1867, we came in sight of the
large and beautiful Lake Athabaska, its surface
dotted all over with islets covered with green trees.
We felt all the happier because we hoped to ar-
rive before evening at Nativity Mission, Fort
Chipewyan, the oldest Mission in these Northern
parts. With a favourable wind we did arrive in
good time, and we were received with many a vol-
ley fired in our honour. The Indians of Chipe-
wyan were most curious about the Nuns, whom
they thought different from ordinary mortals.
They wanted to know if we said Mass, if we heard
confessions, at least, of women. One of them came
to me to kneel for my blessing.
Though we were in a hurry, we spent three
happy days, for a very good reason, at the Nativity
Mission. We found there Mgr. Glut, O.M.I., who
was about to be consecrated as Mgr. Faraud's
Auxiliary Bishop. With him — the titular Bishop
110
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
of Arindela — were Father Eynard, O.M.I., and
Father Tissier, O.M.I. We were installed as
Sacristans, and we made the pretty Church look
quite grand for the consecration, which took place
on the feast of the Assumption. The two Oblate
Fathers had to take the place of Assistant Bishops,
and the consecrating Bishop, Mgr. Faraud, had
only, for other assistants in the ceremonies, good
Brother Salasse, and some little acolytes. There
were not many Indians present: the long and un-
expected delay had obliged them to disperse. But
how touching it was to be the witness of so solemn
an event, in a place where a few years earlier the
name of God had never been heard, and where
now there was a good number of Christians, owing
to the zeal and perseverance of the Missionary
Fathers! It seemed to me that, although ecclesias-
tical dignitaries could not be present, the angels
of heaven must have been there, along with their
Queen, to assist in so august a ceremony, and to
do honour to the King of Glory. We were recom-
pensed for all that we had gone through, since we
now found ourselves privileged to do something,
on our own part, which added to the solemnity
of an event unique in the Northwest.
It would have been a pleasure to stay longer
at Nativity, but there seemed always to be a voice
in the north wind, saying, "Come, come, we are
ni
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
waiting." We started. Once upon the majestic
Slave River, we soon lost sight of Lake Athabaska,
and we seemed to have entered a new world. No
more steep and rocky banks, but a river, almost
as broad as the Saint Lawrence, flowing silently
through wide-spreading prairies, bordered by
forest trees. The days seemed short amid scenes
of such magnificence, and they were made shorter
by the swiftness of the current which bore us
along. One day was enough to bring us to a suc-
cession of rapids, where the river divided into an
immense number of channels by enormous boul-
ders, boils up to a considerable height and falls
with resounding crash at the foot of the cataracts.
I speak of the Fort Smith Rapids, a chain whose
links cover sixteen miles, the last obstacles to navi-
gation on the way to the Arctic Sea. Drawing
near these successive abysses, we could not help
feeling frightened. Yet we had less reason for
fear than elsewhere, not because the danger was
less, but because our experienced guide had passed
up and down the river scores of times, and had a
very sure hand. In four places there were por-
tages.
As soon as we got into calm water, beyond the
last rapid, we were surrounded by Indians, who
had come from a distance to meet us. Next day,
we reached Salt river, and the house of the fam-
112
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
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trl
J-
v.
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o
y.
8
113
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
ous old "patriarch," Beaulieu. He is a Montag-
nais Half-Breed, whose good life has won him
the esteem and affection of the Indians, all of
whom look upon him as a father. It was with
much emotion that we saw here those poor chil-
dren of the woods assembled together to welcome
us, and gathered round their Bishop in their
humble chapel, assisting at Holy Mass with edi-
fying piety. They sang during Mass., and their
wish was gratified to hear the Nuns sing also.
After the instruction, they sang, in their own
language, a very beautiful hymn, and in such
perfect harmony that we were really delighted.
We should have liked well to stay for a while at
Salt River, whether to rest, or to enjoy what was so
pleasing and edifying. But it was our duty to go
forward still. Two more days and nights brought
us to St. Joseph's Mission, Fort Resolution, Great
Slave Lake. There the Rev. Father Gascon gave
us a thousand welcomes in his humble abode. The
poor Father had been a long time alone, and had
wondered what the meaning could be of our long
delay in coming. There were tears in his eyes, as
he kept looking from the Bishop to us, and from us
to the Bishop, seemingly not quite sure whether he
was awake or dreaming. He would have wished
us to make a long stay at Fort Resolution, but the
Bishop wanted to move on, as the weather was fine.
114
THE SACRKD HEART HOSPITAL
It must have been Father Gascon's prayers and
tears, like those of St. Scholastica, which brought
on a storm. The Lake was so rough that we were
obliged to remain two days at St. Joseph's Mission.
We were now in the last stage of our journey,
and it was with pleasure that we set sail once more.
Great Slave Lake is an inland sea, and a veritable
cave of all the winds. We had to plough through
its waves very slowly. Sometimes after sailing for
a couple of hours, we had to put into land, and to
remain for a whole day waiting for the storm to go
down. These forced delays were all the more try-
ing because we knew that we were so near our
destination, so near the end of what seemed a never-
ending journey. On August 27 we sailed for many
hours, though the wind was not favourable. To-
wards evening it turned, and, in the hope of getting
to La Providence the sooner, we decided to spend
the night on board. An unlucky decision it was,
for the wind soon changed again, the clouds gath-
ered thick and black, and we soon were stranded.
All night we remained exposed to the rain and the
cold. Sleep was out of the question. Fortunately,
this was the last of our many arduous adventures,
The light of the morning star was enough to
show our guide where we were. He called up the
boatmen, and in a short time we landed for break-
fast on a little island, where the waters of the Great
lis
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Lake rush out to form the broad Mackenzie. Deo
Gratias! A few hours more, and we shall be at
home!
Yet those hours seemed long, and it was only at
three o'clock in the afternoon that we saw a flag
flying on the Bishop's house. Gradually, other ob-
stacles stood out quite clearly, and soon we saw on
the bank a crowd of Indians and others, cheering
our arrival, and firing of¥ volleys in the gaiety of
their hearts. We responded by intoning the Mag-
nificat, and it was whilst we sang our Lady's hymn
that we were welcomed by the Rev. Father Grou-
ard. Brother Alexis and Brother Boisrame, and
all the people. We were ashore, in a strange,
though longed-for, land in our new country, our
home, our tomb.
And now, dearest Mother General, is there any-
thing more that I have to say? Never, since our
arrival, have we regretted coming: never for a
moment have we been unhappy. That does not at
all mean that we have all that we can wish for!
There are, in truth, many sacrifices to be made.
But it was in order to make them that we came
here. We find it rather hard to get used to the
coarse food, which is always the same. We never
taste bread.
Adieu, dearest Mother! This paper, happier
than ourselves, will find its wav into the bosom of
116
THE SACRKD HEART HOSPITAL
our loved commLinity- We can only follow it in
spirit. Or, rather, we shall go before it, for our
thoughts fly back more quickly there. Adieu, good
and dear Sisters all! Most probably, we shall
never see one another again in this world. Adieu,
until the blessed day of our meeting in a happier
land! Please to remember us, day by day, at the
foot of the altar, in our own old home, and again
near the shrine of our venerated Foundress,
Mother d'Youville."
Here ends the story of a march towards the
North Pole in 1867.
In the last fifty years many other Grey Nuns
have gone on similar expeditions. Mother Charle-
bois, visiting Providence Mission in 1880, wrote:
''We had rain all day. We camped out, with all
our linen wringing wet. I never foresaw that I
should have to live, day and night, for months on
those barges. It is a terrible experience for Nuns.
The scrupulous or over-delicate would deserve
special sympathy. But what can be done? There
is no other way of reaching the northern Missions."
The Rev. Mother Piche, Superior General,
paying an official visit to the northern convents,
and suffering much from cold and hunger, and
having to be content with cold food taken in the
neighbourhood of tipsy Half-Breeds, wrote on
May 24, 1912 : "We had some difficulty in reaching
117
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Lake Athabaska, owing to the ice. I couid bring
nothing except a small portmanteau. All the boxes
had to be left behind at Athabaska Landing, from
which the barges start. Oh, what hardships one
has to go through, on such a journey! If it were
not to help in saving souls, surely no one could face
the difficulties w^hich our self-sacrificing Sisters
do face so willingly."
In the autumn of 1893 Mother Stubinger was a
month and five days on the Athabaska river, when
returning from the north, whilst the snow fell with-
out ceasing. She was saved from starvation by a
few famished hares, snared in the night.
These few passages, chosen at random from a
great number of letters, and the somewhat detailed
account which we ow^e to Sister Lapointe, tell us of
nothing but the ordinary and inevitable incidents
of travel in the north. They tell us nothing of
disasters — of dearly-bought goods sent to the bot-
tom of some lake; of boats dashed in pieces on the
rocks; of Nuns barely saved from drowning; of a
tempest on Great Slave Lake, continuing for fort}'^-
eight hours, during which each raging wave
seemed to be the last that the boat could survive.
Yet Grey Nuns in their travels to the Far North
have gone through such experiences as all thc^e.
One of them, Sister Marie-Marguerite, was on her
way to Providence Mission in 1870, in company of
118
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
Mgr. Glut and Father Foure, o.M.I.^ when the
guides ran away, leaving the little company to its
fate at Grand Rapid. Bishop Glut set out on foot
to look for help. It was a month before he could
get back, and by ^ that time the bad weather, and
weariness, and hunger, and fever had brought the
poor Nun to death's door. She died in another
week at Lake Athabaska.*
The Missionary Sisters of Mackenzie — of the
Sacred Heart Hospital — saw at a glance what a
great field of labour aw^aited their courage and self-
denial. They saw that their self-sacrifice had to be
the price which would rescue and uplift a race
still sunk in barbarism. One of them wrote in
1 867 : "I must give you a few instances to show you
what is the depth of the moral misery which w^e
are called on to relieve. What I tell you will shock
you to hear, as it sickens me to tell. It was a rather
general custom of the savages in these countries to
kill, and sometimes to eat, the orphan children,
especially the little girls'. Religion has made a
great change in this respect, but infanticide is still
by no means rare. A mother, looking with con-
*Father Roure also suffered much, and had a long illness,
of which he still bears the traces. This veteran of the North,
after thirty-nine years of solitude at Fort Rae, on the North Arm
of the Great Slave Lake, among the Flat-Dog-Rib Indians, and
after a few years at Fort Smith, on St. Bruno's Farm, which
he began, and had just got into working order, when he had to
leave it — is now the venerated Chaplain of the Grey Nuns at
Notre Dame de la Providence.
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THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
tempt on her newly-born daughter, will say, "Her
father has deserted me; I am not going to feed
her." So she will wrap up the little one in the skin
of an animal, smother her, and throw her into the
rubbish heap. Another mother, as she makes her
way through a snow-field, will say, '^My child's
father is dead ; who will now take care of it? I am
hardly able to support myself." Thereupon she
makes a hole in the snow, buries her child there,
and passes on. There was a case of an Indian
father who, in a time of sickness, lost his wife, and
two or three of his children. There remained to
him one child still in arms. For two or three days
he carried the little fellow, then he left him hang-
ing on the branch of a tree, and went his way. T
have said more than enough to grieve you. Now
you will quite understand that all these wretched
people would rather have given their children to
us than have killed them, or let them die."
The barbarous deeds of fifty years ago are occa-
sionally repeated even now, if the Convent
Orphanages are far away. But the poor children
are usually saved, to be brought to the Convent by
some charitable neighbour, as in the case of Gab-
riel and Rosalie.
Gabriel — who at his Baptism was tlius named
after the Bishop — belonged to a pagan group of
the Sekanais tribe, living near the Rocky Moun-
121
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
tains, in the neighbourhood of Fort Nelson, in the
northeast corner of British Columbia. He was
about eight years of age when he saw his mother
kill his father, and throw his little brother into the
fire. He himself was saved from the same fate by
his grandmother, who took him to a Sekanais
named Barby, who had no children of his own. A
few days later Barby's wife sickened and died.
Barby after some incantations, thought the Spirit
told him that the adopted child was the cause of
his wife's death. Accordingly he left the boy alone,
on the bank of the Nelson river, near his wife's
grave, and he removed his tent to the opposite
bank. He left the little boy without food or fire,
and almost naked, and watching him across the
river, he took deliberate aim at him with his gun,
whenever he saw the boy wandering around the
grave, or coming to the water to drink, or pulling
up roots to satisfy his hunger. At the end of ten
days, a Trader of the Hudson Bay Company at
Fort Nelson, Boniface Laferty, who had been one
of the first pupils of the Nuns at Fort Providence,
was passing northwards to Fort Liard. He heard
of the case from the little boy's grandmother. He
told the two Indians whom he had with him to
take the boy and hide him in a certain place, whilst
he himself distracted the attention of the fierce
Sekanais. The child, when found, was little more
122
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
than a skeleton, on which vermin and mosquitoes
had been trying to feast. He was left at Fort
Liard, "for the Nuns." by Mr. Laferty, and he was
taken to Providence, 300 miles away, by Father Le
Guen, O.M.I.
In the Orphanage there, Gabriel remained for
two years, learning how to pray to the Great Spirit
and His Divine Son. But Gabriel had brought
lung disease from the Nelson river, and in spite of
tender care, by day and by night, he died very
young.
The story of Rosalie is different. The visitor
to-day (1917) to Fort Resolution Convent (of
which we have yet to speak) will be attracted by
the intelligent and sweet face of the smallest,
though not the youngest, of the sixty orphan girls,
who rapidly range themselves in order, like steps
of stairs, at the sound of the bell. This is Rosalie,
seven years of age, speaking English and French,
and the Indian dialect of her native tribe, the Dog-
Ribs. Sister Ann Mary has taught her to recite
and to act, in a way that provokes alternately laugh-
ter and tears. Rosalie, when left an orphan at four
years of age, went to live with her uncle. The
Dog-Ribs are all Christians, so she was not killed.
But the original cruelty of the Indian heart
justifies the name by which an orphan is
called in the Northern languages, the Weeper.
123
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
For a year Rosalie followed the camp, eating what-
ever she could find left over by others, and having
for her only bed-clothes such odds and ends of
peltry as were of no use to others. One night she
felt she was getting frost-bitten, and she tried in
Three Sisters of the Hare-
Skins Tribe.
From Fort Good-Hope, at the
Fort Providence School.
vain to rekindle the dying embers in the hut. Next
day, as she could not walk, she was taken away on a
sledge, "for the Nuns." At Fort Rae, on the North
Arm of Great Slave Lake, the Company's officer,
124
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
with his pocket knife, cut off both her feet, and so
saved her life to be the baptized and educated
Rosalie, if not the prairie flower, of the Fort
Resolution Convent.
It is easy, therefore, to understand that the first
and foremost work before the Grey Nuns in the Far
North was to prevent the massacre of the innocents,
and to bring to these children the blessing of Bap-
tism at least.
Of a second task which the Nuns set before
themselves, one of them wrote as follows: — "An-
other work which we have in view, is to gather
together a number of Half-Breed or Indian chil-
dren, and to give them a good education, so that
they may be able afterwards to spread the knowl-
edge of our holy religion among their relations and
friends. Our schools will also give us Catholics a
higher place in the esteem of our separated breth-
ren, who, as you know, attach great importance to
the external advantages of education."
School was opened for the first time at Fort
Providence on October 7^ 1867. The teacher. Sis-
ter St. Michael, began with eleven pupils.
Still another good work undertaken by the
Nuns was the care of the sick. Justly was their
Convent known as the Sacred Heart Hospital. For
half a centurv there has been a welcome there for
125
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the many diseases which afflict the poor Indians of
the North. Many afflicted persons have found
shelter for long years under that hospitable roof.
There one might have found Blind Margaret, Lid-
wine the paralytic, the Little Fool, and many an-
other. The Little Fool, who was partially par-
alysed, had been abandoned on the shore by his
father, one of the Slave Indians. He was found by
the Sisters of Charity, and brought home. For
twenty years they took care of him, doing all that
they could to relieve his mental and corporal in-
firmities. When the Little Fool was vexed, he
would race on all fours to strike his devoted nurses.
But their long-continued patience and kindness
almost succeeded in making him obedient, and in
teaching him something of religion.
The sick Indians, especially in the first years,
were very savage still, especially in their language.
But the devoted Sisters schooled themselves to
make allowance, to understand, and so to forgive.
In the Hospital of the Sacred Heart they once had
an old man who, in time of famine, had eaten his
wife and his four children. He was in hospital,
because feeble and paralysed, no longer able to go
to the hunting grounds. The Infirmarian Sister
spent a long time instructing him and preparing
him for eternity. The day before his death, he
called her, and said confidentially, 'Tf I had a little
126
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
human flesh, I think it would do me good."
The Indians, were, of course, the chief care of
the Sisters of Charity in Mackenzie. But the sick
of any other race, and of any religion, were also
welcome to their charitable services. One night in
1899, during the mad rush to the goldfields of the
Klondike, the Sisters were roused in alarm by the
noise of tables and chairs upset, and someone fall-
ing on the floor, and rising to fall again. It was an
unfortunate miner, whose legs had both been frost-
bitten in the melting snow. When about to give
himself up for lost, like so many others, he noticed
a house by the river side. He had dragged himself
there, but could only lie upon the floor, groaning.
By the skilful care of the Sisters, he was sent away
cured.
Besides the inmates of the Hospital, sick people
in their own huts or homes were also cared for by
the Nuns, as they are still. Every day the Sister
Superior may be seen leaving the Convent, carry-
ing, under her grey cloak, medicine, lancet, lint,
and hot water, and passing in the snow from tent
to tent, from cabin to cabin, from ulcer to ulcer,
bringing to each sufferer a remedy along with the
encouraging sm.ile of the true Sister of Charity.
And when death comes, how genuine is the grief,
how sincere the sympathy! The Nuns have seen
manv of those epidemics which, from time to time,
1 27
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
visit and decimate the Red Indian tribes, not spar-
ing even those children who seemed to be safe
within the convent walls. Over such little ones,
whose bodies they had to commit to earth, after
preparing their souls for heaven, the Nuns have
wept as lovingly, and as long as any mother.
The following lines are taken from a letter writ-
ten by Sister Beaudin, on November 21, 1903:
"Soon after dear Sister Boisvert left us, an epi-
demic, coming from the Good Hope district, fur-
ther north, was raging here. Not one of our fifty-
four children escaped it. At first we did not think
it dangerous, but we soon saw our mistake. After
measles, came scarlet fever, diphtheria, and dysent-
ery. It was heartbreaking to see so many children
all at the same time bound on a bed of suffering.
We watched over them by day and by night. It
pleased God to afflict us by ten deaths. Three of
the boys, and seven of the girls were carried ofif.
One of the little girls died whilst making her
thanksgiving after her First Communion. We are
very sad, and yet we can envy the holy deaths
granted to those dear children."
The one obstacle in the way of doing so much
for the orphans and the sick was the utter poverty
in which the Nuns themselves had to live. Mother
d'Youville had often said, "Our Sisters ought not
128
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
to have more comfort than the poor/' The Sisters
at Providence could well afford to be judged by so
severe a doctrine. We find that until 1899. when
the present Convent was opened, the children slept
in berths, like the shelves of a bookcase, ranged one
above the other from the floor to the ceiling. These
curious constructions, said to have been made bv
Bishop Faraud, ought to be preserved in memory
of old times. In this children's dormitory, of
which we speak, the one free corner was occupied
by the Sisters' beds, laid side by side. One of the
Sisters, however, had to sleep on a table on the
ground-floor, so as to keep the fire burning all
night. For a long time, in the beginnmg, the Sis-
ters could not have the clothing of which they had
need. Grey habits might be seen, which had been
made of canvas.
Telling something of those hard times, one of
the Sisters, who has been at Providence since 1884,
said lately with a quiet smile, "But we did not let
them know at the Mother House: we were afraid
of being called back."
The Providence foundation was already twen-
ty-six years old, and was making progress ( !) , when
Mother Stubinger wrote as follows, in the report
of her visitation there : "One's heart is crushed, and
again one's heart is enlarged, in such a place as
this. Only an eye witness can understand things.
129
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THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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l^HE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
At first, I thought the Sisters looked pretty well;
but I find they are all very delicate. Their cour-
age and generosity are beyond all praise. They are
cheerful and gay even in the refectory, for them a
place of special mortification. Three times a day,
the same two dishes are laid before them, fish and
potatoes. A little cake, of the size of a Boston bis-
cuit, is called the dessert. Only on great festivals
they may have a little rice, and dried apple, or wild
berries. Game has almost disappeared from this
country. During my stay of a fortnight, ten geese
were the only thing killed. Even fish has be-
come scarce. To find a winter supply, it is neces-
sary to go a distance of forty miles. For this win-
ter supply, that is, to give everyone something ^to
eat, though not at all enough, at least 21,000 fishes
must be stored. To add to the local misfortunes,
there has been a plague of locusts. In ten days,
since I have been here, they have eaten up the fruits
and vegetables which, with great difficulty, had
been grown here. We have tried, without success,
all possible means to get rid of the grasshoppers.
My heart is full of sorrow, day after day, as I see
our poor Sisters left without even the necessaries
of life." Mother Stubinger, after her return to
-Montreal, was sometimes seen to be weeping in the
refectory. She was thinking of those whom she
had left in the Far North.
131
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
In 1885, Sister Ward wrote at Providence:
"The potato crop has been very poor. The barley
lield has been ruined by the locusts ; also the wheat,
last year's crop having been destroyed by the frost.
The thick ice gathered on the lake, before the neces-
sary fishing could be completed. Yet we are now
eating fish three times a day since the middle of
August. There is not a morsel of meat in the
house. We are keeping Lent by anticipation, and
a Lent of which we cannot foresee the end. How-
ever, our fish diet is really good, and we eat it with
such good appetites that we are likely to die of old
age. All our vegetables have shared the fate of the
wheat and the barley. Dear Sister Brunelle, after
lavishing on them what may be called a mother's
care, had the consolation of bringing home one car-
rot! The onions alone remain: it appears they
were so bad that the locusts disdained them."
So we see that agriculture in the North has
other enemies besides the frozen ground, and the
freezing blasts. Besides the locusts, sometimes
come the caterpillars. A letter of 1879 says: "The
sowing was all over by May 24. We were con-
gratulating ourselves on having finished so soon,
when Father Lecorre came to tell us that there were
thousands of caterpillars in the barley. They set
to work about ten o'clock in the evening, and hid
in the ground at sunrise. They destroyed the two
fields of barley." 132
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
No barley meant no soup, and no coffee, for the
year then beginning. Barley was used to make
both soup and coffee, quite according to the Kneipp
prescription, and of course without sugar, which
is still a luxury in the North. This soup is the sub-
ject of an interesting note written in his journal by
the Father Superior of the Providence Mission on
August 21, 1903 : "There is no more dried fish, and
from the river we can hardly get enough for one
meal a day. We must live upon soup."
The heaviest trial of all came in 1881-2. In
spite of silence about sufferings, in spite of the
hopes for improvement which the optimists of the
Convent mingled with the reports which dut\^
obliged them to send to their Superiors, the true
state of the case became only too well known, and
an order came to abandon the Convent. "It is a
martyrdom of the Sisters," the document said:
"there is no hope of their being able to live there;
they must withdraw."
The bearer of the fatal message was Brother
Larue, who was sent from Lake Athabaska, on May
16, 1881. The Brother was to make all haste, so
that the Nuns might be able to take their passage on
the next boats coming from Fort Simpson, on the
Mackenzie. But the Brother's canoe was so
delayed by floating ice, first at Fort Smith, and then
at Great Slave Lake, that he reached Providence
133
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
only on June 28. Great was the distress there. In
the Convent the Nuns were weeping. Outside, the
Indians and Half-Breeds were declaring the\^
could not allow the departure of those who were
the Mothers of their sick, and of their young
orphans. All the Protestants of Fort Providence
were deeply grieved. It was a relief to all when
the boats from Fort Simpson arrived two days
after Brother Larue had brought the letter. It was
evidently impossible to be ready to close the Con-
vent, and leave the place on such short notice. It
was evidently necessary to wait for the next sailing,
which w^ould be in another year. So it was
arranged that Sister Charlebois, the Mother Gen-
eral's Assistant, who had spent the winter at Provi-
dence, would go aboard by herself, and would tell
them at Montreal to expect all the Nuns in the fol-
lowing spring.
Meanwhile, the news reached Mr. Camsell, tne
chief official of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort
Simpson, and he told the Nuns that there would be
no room for them on the Company's boats, if they
wanted to go away for good.
"But," they said, "we are under orders."
"Well, let them come and fetch you."
"But, if we cannot live here? Our poverty
makes it impossible," said the Nuns.
"We will bring you, carriage free, all that your
friends send," was the offer in reply.
134
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
The Nuns could only say: "There will be an-
other letter from Montreal, ordering us to return
without fail."
"No!" said the friendly Protestant gentleman:
"all letters pass through my hands, and no such
letter shall reach you."
All these objections would have had to be
over-ruled somehow, if religious authority so
required. But they made a great impression, and
they increased the sorrow of one and all. The
autumn and winter of 1881-2, were a prolonged
agony. Father Lecorre got the children to pray to
God for the decision which all desired. Father
Ladet, being asked to help in packing up, said.
"No! God Almighty will not permit your depart-
ure. The Sisters are doing too much good here;
their going away would be too great a misfortune;
they cannot go, and I am sure they won't go; I will
pack no boxes."
Meanwhile, everybody was trying to discover
some new economies and privations, which might
justify a reprieve.
One of the Nuns wrote at a later date : "We kept
on imploring all the Heavenly Powers that the
sentence might not be carried out. We had suf-
fered so much in our frozen North, and we were so
attached to our poor orphans, that we thought we
could not now be happy elsewhere."
135
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
But of course the command that had reached
the Convent had to be considered before all per-
sonal regrets and desires. One by one, the children
would be sent away. One by one, as if a fresh fibre
The First Convent oe Fort Providence (1867).
Sisters Marie-Anne, Michon, Ward, Yves, Brunelle, Augustine.
were being plucked from the heart, each piece ot
linen was folded, each piece of furniture was un-
done. Even before the breaking up of the ice, that
is, long before the boats were due, everything was
packed and ready, and the walls of the Convent
were bare.
136
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
One evening in March, 1882, the air rang with
the tinkling bells of the dog-sled, bringing the post
from far away. There was a Montreal letter for
the Convent. In the Superior's trembling hands it
remained a while unopened. She seemed like one
praying that, if it were possible, the bitter cup
might pass. "Open it," said the Oblate Father; "I
am sure it brings good news: we have all prayed
so much."
He was right. Mgr. Tache, hearing how things
were, had promised to find additional help; Father
Ducot had got money from his family in Bordeaux;
Father Lecorre was to go to France to make an
appeal for the Mackenzie Missions. The Nuns
were to remain, and their number was even to be
increased before long. Though Isaac was bound
on the altar, God did not demand the actual sacri-
fice. The seemingly destined victim was spared,
for the happiness of many generations.
The sufferings and privations of the Grey Nuns
at Providence were by no means at an end. Never-
theless, things began to improve. The Canadian
Government gave some help; a certain Bishop
managed somehow to increase his contributions;
and in our time the Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie
is enabled to give their daily bread — real, literal,
wheaten bread, be it understood! — to the Nuns and
their voung charges at Notre Dame de la Provi-
137
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
dence. The present Convent is quite a fine and
spacious building. It is the enlargement, by Mgr.
Breynat, of the second Convent, which was built
in 1899 by Mgr. Grouard. Let St. Joseph only
provide fish from the Great Lake, and potatoes
from the garden, and the Grey Nuns of the North
will joyfully face the winters of another half-cent-
ury, making very little of their sacrifice of all com-
fort and ease. They know they are working for
the salvation of souls. They know they are the
missionaries of the poor.
The Sacred Heart Hospital at Fort Providence,
celebrated its Golden Jubilee, on July 3-6, 1917,
with as much solemnity as was possible in the Far
North. The Mother General of the Grey Nuns,
Reverend Mother Piche, was present, having made
the long and fatiguing journey from Montreal,
along with the Secretary General of the Institute,
Mother St. John Baptist. From all the Convents
in the Mackenzie religious province came some
representatives of the self-sacrificing Sisters ever
busy therein. The Te Deum was chanted in the
new Chapel, whose beautiful proportions were seen
to great advantage in the clear northern light,
chanted before the superb altar, presented by Cana-
dian friends in honour of this Jubilee day. The
Right Rev. Bishop Breynat, in a memorable ser-
139
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
mon, spoke of the hidden lives, the courage, the
sacrifice, the perseverance of the Sisters of Charity,
never failing during half a century, and under
God's blessing bringing forth such marvellous
fruit. The children of the Institution, in prose and
in poetic song, told their gratitude and love for
their good Mothers of the Convent, and for their
Canadian and French and all other benefactors, of
whom the Grey Nuns and the Oblate Fathers are
for them the immediate representatives.
Reverend Mother St. John Baptist allows us to
quote here some passages from the diary which she
wrote during the Jubilee celebrations.
"July 4. Another banquet! Sister Stc.
Eugenie, the Local Superior, had made all arrange-
ments. The Indians of the Fort had been mvited.
Thirty of them came, and they evidently felt very
proud and happy. The mothers, wearing a shawl,
carried their little children on their back. A
mother of twins had one on her back, and the other
in her arms. At first I thought she was a hunch-
back, but the hump soon disappeared. This re-
minds me to tell you of a distraction I had at Mass
this morning — yet a very touching sight. The In-
dian mothers bring their children with them every-
where, and, of course, to Mass also, not always to
the comfort of the preacher. When these women
are to receive Holy Communion, they let the Nuns
140
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
and the Convent children go first. Then, quite
unceremoniously, they hand their children to the
Nuns, and approach the altar rails. On their re-
turn they take back the babies, and squat down,
with their shawls about their heads, praying very
devoutly.
"But about our little banquet. The men sat at
one side, the women at the other. The Bishop
blessed the table, and then helped the guests. The
Mother General took her part also, and she gave
to each guest a holy picture and a blessed medal.
The Indians had not expected so many good things.
They had already dined before coming, but the
plates were quickly cleared all the same. One
mother, saying how she regretted the absence of her
son, pocketed her own dessert of raisins and
almonds for him, and helped herself from the plates
of her obliging neighbours. Nearly all those In-
dians were old pupils of the Sisters, and it was very
consoling to hear how they spoke of their youthful
days in the Convent. Good old grandmother
Bouvier was quite proud to tell that it was her
children who were the first pupils of the Nuns at
Fort Providence. She herself sang and danced for
us. Her son, John Baptist, having been taught
English and French by the Nuns, held an import-
ant position at the Fort, in the service of the Hud-
son's Bay Company. He is now pensioned off. In
141
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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142
THE SACRED HEART HOSPITAE
our festive gathering, he made a speech, and pro-
posed the health of the Mother General, telling of
all the good done to the Indian people by her de-
voted Nuns, those who have gone to their reward,
and those who have come to fill the void left by
their departure. He told us that he had hoped that
Mother Ward also might have come back from
Eastern Canada for this feast day, and that he had
prepared a special speech in her honour, as she is
the survivor of the founders of the Hospital of the
Sacred Heart."
To these grateful reported words of a Half-
Breed, w^ho was one of the eleven pupils of October
1 . \ 867, it only remains to add a testimony of very
special value. In the Nuns' little parlour at Fort
Providence, there is a Visitors' Book, of which the
first page has been written by Bishop Breynat, the
ecclesiastical Superior of the Grey Nuns of Mac-
kenzie. The words of that devoted prelate will
make the very best conclusion of this Chapter on
the Convent and Hospital of the Sacred Heart.
"This house has done a great deal of good al-
ready. It will do still more as time goes on, making
more and more progress with the blessing of
Heaven. All visitors are struck with admiration
at what they see here, in so remote a place. In the
midst of my own anxieties and cares, it is always my
greatest consolation when I can spend a day under
143
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the roof of this admirable religious establishment.
I must add what I have said many times already,
that this Hospital of the Sacred Heart has been and
will continue to be, a source of many blessings, and
of abundant vocations, for the whole Congregation
of the Grey Nuns.
tGABRIEL, O.M.I.,
Bishop of Adramytfium,
Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie.'^
144
CHAPTER VI.
THE CONVENT OF THE HOLY ANGELS, NATIVITY
MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA (1874)
Of the site and the prospects of the Convent of
the Hol}^ Angels. Lake Athabaska, Mother Stub-
inger wrote, after an official visit in 1893: "There
is nothing to be seen here except rocks and hills.
The Convent, perched high on a rock, looks like an
eagle's nest. There is no ground that can be tilled.
The patch on which our Sisters try to grow potatoes
and barley was a morass, which was filled up with
soil taken from the Lake at low water; it measures
about half an acre. There is also a small island, on
which it may be possible to grow about forty bar-
rels of potatoes. So far for the temporal resources
of the establishment."
This picturesque site, on the cliffs overhanging
Lake Athabaska, at the distance of a mile from^
Fort Chipewyan, was chosen in 1847 by Father
Tache, the founder of the Mission, which he called
La Nativite. If he selected that particular site, it
was for the very good reason that it would, after all,
be easier to drain and fill a marsh, than to clear any
portion of the surrounding woods.
The Nativity Mission is the oldest, and is still
145
10
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the most important^ of all the Missions in the north-
ern Vicariates. It is frequented by many of the
Wood Crees, and by a still greater number of
Montagnais. It is in regular communication with
the other Mission, Fond du Lac. 175 mJles away,
at the east end of the Lake, in the hunting grounds
of other Montagnais, known as the Caribou-Eaters.
At Fond du Lac, there is also a considerable num-
ber of Half-Breeds.
For nearly thirty years, Nativity Mission had
been making slow progress, until the Grey Nuns
from Providence founded their Convent of the
Holy Angels in 1874, seven years after their arrival
in the Far North. The history of this foundation
brings home to us the terrible isolation of those
poor northern Missions, where the only savoir
faire, the only guiding rule of life, has to be, "Do
the best you can," or, as Mgr. Grandin preferred
to express it, "Do the least badly that you can."
Mgr. Clut, Bishop Auxiliary of Mgr. Faraud.
was at Nativity Mission during the winter of
1873-4. There he found that, for special reasons, a
school had to be provided immediately and at all
costs. To negotiate with the Mother General of
the Grey Nuns would have taken a year at least.
To communicate with Mgr. Faraud would have
taken longer still, for he was then in Europe. Mgr.
Clut prayed, and then decided for himself what
146
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
he would do. He wrote in all haste to the Sacred
Heart Hospital, begging and beseeching Sister La-
pointe to send two Sisters to open a school at Lake
Athabaska, and undertaking confidently to obtain
the approval of the Mother General in due course.
For the Sister Superior to do as she was asked
on this occasion was clean contrary to the Rules of
her Order. But, on the other hand, the reasons
were so urgent that delay seemed impossible. The
Nuns, after considering and praying, thought that,
in this particular case, they were not bound by the
letter of their law. Father Grouard, who was
then in charge of the Providence Mission, encour-
aged them in this view. On June 30, 1874, the
boats from Fort Simpson were at Providence, on
their way south to Lake Athabaska. Sister La-
pointe. Sister St. Michael, and Sister Domithilda
went on board. Father Grouard, whose health
had completely broken down, travelled by the same
boats. He was on his way to France, and he
promised to justify in Montreal the decision to
which the Nuns had come. Mgr. Glut had al-
ready written to the Mother General.
After three weeks in the boats, the foundresses
of the new Convent reached Lake Athabaska,
where they were received by Father Laity, w^ho
showed them into their new home. It was an old
shed, on which some repairs had been begun. The
147
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
first meal consisted of dried meat softened with
suet, boiled fruits and milk, all served in old tin
porringers. For dessert, there were two enormous
tarts, seasoned only by appetite, proverbially the
best of all sauces. It did not take the Sisters long
to make the acquaintance of their new house : they
found one room, one table, and one pallet. To
make a dormitory, the garret had to be cleared out.
First a pitchfork, then a shovel, and lastly a broom
did the work. The same implements were found
useful on the ground floor.
In a week the new school was opened, and had
fifteen pupils. The winter of 1874-5 was very
severe. Snow as well as wind found easy entrance
into the shed. The provisions for the year con-
sisted of one sack of flour, one small barrel of sugar,
five barrels of wheat, seven or eight of barley, and
some potatoes. Bran cake was a standing dish. Of
butter or dripping there was none.
But the Sisters engaged in this new venture
were much more concerned about the expected
decision of their Mother General than about the
privations which they had to endure. On the Sun-
day after Christmas, it reached them by the hands
of a special messenger. Rev. Mother Dupuis,
Superior General, by her letter commanded the
Sisters to leave Lake Athabaska at once. This
order, accompanied with words of severe blame,
148
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
gave the greatest pain to the poor missionary Sis-
ters. The Rev. Mother had done her duty by
upholding the Rule; the Sisters did theirs by
keeping silence. At that particular time of the
year, it was impossible for them to travel. Whilst
waiting for the boats, they could only weep and
pray.
To add to their sorrows, they learned how
happy others had been made by their first Christ-
mas at Lake Athabaska. Father Pascal (now
Bishop) wrote to Bishop Clut: "In spite of our
poverty, Midnight Mass was very solemn at Nativ-
ity Mission. Sister Lapointe worked wonders.
The children sang beautifully, and in parts, with
an assurance which would have done credit to any
trained choir. Their listening parents wept tears
of joy. Who indeed could fail to be moved by
those angel voices hymning the praise of the Divine
Child in the Crib? Our little church was crowded
that night. All the Protestants of the Fort were
present, including the schoolmaster. They re-
mained also for the second Mass. The Sisters are
most devoted to their work."
Was the fair prospect to be only a vision? Were
the Indian children to be left untaught, according
to the principles of their faith? One hope re-
mained. Father Grouard had said: "I will go on
my knees, if necessary: I will not return without
149
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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150
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
getting approval for what you have done." The
Mother General's letter had been sent before
Father Grouard reached Montreal. His pleadings
with the Mother General, and with the Bishop of
Montreal, Mgr. Bourget, were so powerful that
he gained his cause. On February 26, 1875, a
second letter from Montreal was received, saying
that the new foundation was accepted, and that in
May three Sisters would set out for the Convent
of the Holy Angels. Hearty were the thanksgiv-
ings to God of all who were concerned. New
efforts were made to turn the "temporary" Convent,
the shed, into a more habitable sort of lodging.
The inside was wainscotted as far as the window
frames; some articles of furniture were made;
everyone gave up all free time of day and night to
preparing some kind of home for the expected
Sisters.
On August 13, 1875, Sister Brochu, Sister
Fournier, and Virginie Bernier, Franciscan Ter-
tiary, arrived from the east, accompanied by Father
Le Doussal. Except for two short absences, this
venerable priest has continued, from that day to
this, to aid and encourage the Nuns of Lake Atha-
baska in their holy lives and labours. The three
new arrivals were soon busy, each at her own spe-
cial work. Sister Brochu took charge of the ten
little girls, Sister Fournier of the eight little boy^,
151
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
and good Virginie of the kitchen. Virginie, now
Sister Bruno, is at this present day still as busy as
ever. Though 87 years of age, she attends all the
community exercises in the Convent of the Angels;
she is never tired of saying rosaries for everybody,
nor of knitting stockings for the children. On
August 23, Sisters Lapointe and Domithilda re-
turned to Fort Providence, leaving Sister St.
Michael as Superior at Lake Athabaska.
The so-called "temporary" house served the
nuns for seven years. The only chairs it ever knevs^
were planks set up on trestles. As for sleeping
accommodation, one of the Nuns had the only bed
(such as it was), another slept on a table, and the
little girls, rolled in their blankets, slept on the floor
near their teacher.
Mgr. Faraud used to say that nowhere had
there been heavier trials than at Lake Athabaska —
harder labours, longer fasts, or more destructive
storms. The barrenness of the soil, the scarcity of
game, the frequent absence of fish, and the very
many storms on the Lake, explain the Bishop's
statement. Q'uite lately, an Oblate Brother,
whose face bears the marks of rude labours and
sufferings, rather than of years, brought the pre-
sent writer to the red rock, from which Father
Laity, Father Pascal (now Bishop of Prince Al-
bert), or Father Le Doussal, would anxiouslv look
152
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
out to see if the fisherman of the Mission was not
at last coming out of Lake Mammawi — an over-
flow of Lake Athabaska — bringing something for
dinner. But sometimes wind and waves were so
unfavourable that the fisherman could do nothing
for a whole day, or for two days, perhaps for three
days. Whilst he waited, the priests and Nuns had
to fast. The tales which are now told by the surviv-
ors of those old times are almost incredible. When
the two communities were dependent on the suc-
cess of the Indians in hunting and fishing, what
must have been their state in times of famine, when
some of the Athabaska Indians became cannibals!
A letter from the Convent, dated July 15, 1879.
said: "Our crops do not promise well. There is
want already everywhere, but here more than else-
where. In a whole year we have had only one
moose, and two caribous."
In 1884, Sister Lemay, the Superior of the Con-
vent wrote: "Our trials do not grow any lighter.
This year, to add to our other privations, it pleased
God to leave us without potatoes. After sowing
thirty barrels, we gathered only thirteen barrels of
very small ones. The frost had destroyed all the
rest. The consequence is that we can eat none. All
will be required for sowing in the next season. Our
wheat and barley have also suffered much from the
frost, both in quantitv and qualitv- If the priva-
^153 " "
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
tions are much felt by all, both in the Mission
House and in the Convent, they are felt most by
the newcomers. Poor Sister St. Charles is quite
exhausted and ill. During her first weeks here, it
was pitiful to see how much she was suffering from
violent headaches. Her chest also troubled her,
and its pains were increased by frequent vomiting.
She did her best to overcome her repugnance for
the pemmican, or dried meat, but her stomach
could not bear it. She suffered more than any of
us from having so little bread to eat. I obliged her
to take more than our ordinary rationed portion,
although fearing that our supply would soon dis-
appear. The change did her good. But she would
have much preferred to differ from the other Sis-
ters only by enduring greater privations."
In the following year, 1885, this was the reckon-
ing: "A bushel of turnips, half a bushel of carrots,
two gallons of little peas, saved from the mice, a
hundred bags of potatoes of very poor quality, a
wretched crop of beans and onions, the little wheat
that we sowqd, ruined by the frost."
In such circumstances we can well imagine
what joy there was over the least success in getting
anything to grow. A Convent chronicle of Janu-
ary 2, 1%2, said: — "Our garden has grown seven-
ty-five heads of cabbage (rather small), a sack of
beet, thirty ears of wheat, thirty-two tomatoes, five
" 154
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
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THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
bunches of celery, some cucumbers, a melon, half
a bushel of onions, some turnips, lettuce, and rad-
ishes, as well as some flowers for the decoration of
the altar. The best of all is that Sister Jobin is in
such high spirits, and so full of determination to
try again next spring. It must be remembered that
nearly all the things mentioned are now making
their first appearance at Lake Athabaska. Last
year, Sister Brunelle said she had not tasted a
cucumber before for thirty-four years. Sister
Superior for eighteen, Sister St. Peter for seven-
teen, and so for the rest."
But the reader will say that at Lake Athabaska
there was, at all events, plenty of water, the pre-
cious liquid of which the great Foundress, St.
Theresa, desired there should always be an abund-
ant and pure supply. Well, the fact is that, whilst
the Lake looks clear as crystal in the distance, it is
muddy and dirty wherever the water can be drawn.
A letter from the Convent says : — "In the middle of
July the water was very low, to our great incon-
venience both in kitchen and in laundry. Various
fruitless attempts were made to purify the water.
Our tea, for which it had to be used, was literally
disgusting."
On this point, however, it is pleasant to be able
to add that during the last few years the Nuns and
their schoolboys, bv means of pick and shovel, have
" 156
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
got down through the rock as far as the filtered
water of the Lake. Deo Gratias.
It is not our purpose to publish here any account
of the travels of the missionary Sisters of Atha-
baska. There is not one of them whose experiences
were not as varied and as trying as those of their
Sisters at Fort Providence. The seventeen volumes
of the Circulars of the Grey Nuns contain many
letters written from the rock over Lake Athabaska,
whilst the impressions of the writers were still quite
fresh. These letters are full of charm even for one
who knows by experience the wild countries
described, and the dangers through which travel-
lers have to pass. Still more attractive would they
be to all readers at a distance.
The travels of the Nuns were, of course, usually
only those that came in the way of duty and obedi-
ence. But, even in the bleak North, where there
are pupils, there must be occasionally a little out-
ing of another sort. Sister Dufault, one of the "old
hands" at Lake Athabaska, has left us an account of
one of those school picnics, which we must do our-
selves the pleasure of quoting here. In the North,
the devil is called "The Old Grey One," and it
will be seen that he meddles even with innocent
amusements, but that he can be driven away by
appeals to someone stronger than himself.
157
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Sister Dufault wrote as follows from Lake
Athabaska: "For Sept. 11, 1900, the feast day of
Mother Vicaress, we had prepared a real holiday.
We had a picnic on Goose Island. At 8 a.m.
everybody belonging to the Mission was on board
the Saint Joseph, which took us to the island in a
little less than two hours. The day passed very
pleasantly. At supper, we saw clouds begin to
gather, and we made haste to pack up, and to
weigh anchor. We had not gone far when the
wind rose, and we were soon in the thick of a storm.
Everyone was seasick, and the boat was tossing ter-
ribly. I had never seen such waves, and yet we
were not out on the open lake. We were so afraid
that we decided to turn back, not only on account of
the danger, but because there was not wood enough
for the boiler, and the boat was making very slow
progress. To make matters worse, the skiff which
we had in tow got broken, so that we could not land.
We had to anchor for the night. So well were we
"rocked in the cradle of the deep" that no one could
sleep a wink. It was very cold, and we had no
blankets. Of course the children were all in the
hold, trying to get some rest. What a long night it
was, and how welcome was the day! We were
hoping to turn our face homeward. But a strong
wind was still blowing, and on board there was
nothing to eat. Yes, there was one sack of flour!
158
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
But now another misfortune. We had anchored
close to land, and before we noticed it we had been
left high and dry. The Brothers and the boys
worked all day, trying to push off. All in vain: it
seemed certain that we should have to wait for
Ready ?
high water, which might not come for some days.
We had been invoking our Venerable Mother
d'Youville, and once more, whilst the men made a
great effort, all cried out with one voice, "Vener-
able Mother d'Youville, come to our assistance."
Suddenlv, to the astonishment of all, the boat
159
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
glided into the water, to the accompaniment of a
chorus of thanks to our intercessor in heaven. Bro-
ther Charbonneau placed the image of Mother
d'Youville near his little steam-engine. All the
day, Sister St. Peter and I were kept busy making
little cakes, which were no sooner baked on a little
stove than they were eaten. At 5 p.m. we were able
to begin our journey home, where we arrived at 8
p.m. Sister Superior and Sister Jobin, who had
spent a very anxious night and day, embraced us
as joyfully as if we had been a year away. Assur-
edly, we are not likely to forget the trip to Goose
Island.
It will be no harm to tell here of another picnic.
— to the Myrtles — to which the present writer was
invited by Father de Chambeuil in 1915. Sisters
Dufault, Laverty, and Saint-Cyr were present.
Brother Courteille was in charge of the engine, and
Brother Crenn was the man at the wheel. We
steamed towards Lake Brocket (Jackfish), which
makes one with Lake Athabaska twenty miles away
from the Mission. The bright sun was mirrored
in the beautiful lake as we set out very gaily. But
the laughter and song of the school-children came
to a sudden stop — upon a sand-bank! It was only
in the evening of the next day, after running
aground in a few other places, that we finished the
last eight miles of our journey. When we came
160
NATIVITY MISSION, LAKE ATHABASKA
back to the boat from our myrtle oasis, it was in
torrents of rain, and with a hurricane raging in our
ears. Our boat, the Saint-Emile, was as fiercely
buffeted by the waves as the Saint Joseph in 1900.
Against wind and wave, and rain and sleet, our
little craft struggled and manoeuvered for three
days in making the twenty miles of the return
journey. At last, on the Saturday evening, in a
temperature five degrees centigrade below zero,
whilst the snow was thickly falling, on the fourth
day after September 8, the patronal feast day oi
Nativity Mission — the latest day appointed for our
return — we drew into the neighbourhood of the
rock of the Holy Angels. Undoubtedly, our Wild
North Land makes its friends pay very dearly, even
for their pleasure outings.
No matter: that winter there were 700 lbs. of
excellent berries for dessert; no one fell sick; there
were no coughs or colds; and everybody concerned
began to prepare for the picnic of 1917, in honour
of the Jubilee Year.
The Convent of the Holy Angels is in the
Right Reverend Bishop Grouard's Vicariate of
Athabaska, although it belongs to the Mackenzie
province of the Order of the Grey Nuns. Without
being altogether proof against sickness or short-
comings, it has reached a certain degree of pros-
161
11
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
perity, so that it now receives many boarders, to
whom it gives a sound and thoroughly Christian
education. In some of our later pages, mention
will have to be made both of the trials through
which the Lake Athabaska Convent has passed,
and of the success with which, by God's blessing,
it has overcome them all.
162
CHAPTER VII.
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICE, FORT RESOLUTION,
GREAT SLAVE LAKE (1903)
For a long time, the Sacred Heart Hospital and
the Convent of the Holy Angels were the only
establishments of the Grey Nuns in Athabaska-
Mackenzie. But the year 1901, when the two dis-
FoRT Resolution (Great Slave Lake) in
Summer Time.
tinct Vicariates were formed, was the beginning of
a new era in the missionary work of the Nuns in
the vast spaces of the North.
The first foundation of this modern period is
the handsome Hospice of St. Joseph, built on the
163
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
shore of Great Slave Lake, of which mention is
rriade so often in connection with the Missions of
the Far North. From the Convent porch you can
see that part of the Lake on which Bishop Grandin,
lost in a snow-storm, spent the night of December
14-15, 1863, accepting with resignation what
seemed certain death, after hearing the confession
of the little boy who was his only companion.
St. Joseph's Mission, Fort Resolution, was
founded by Mgr. Faraud, who planted the Cross
there in 1852. On his very first visit, he baptized
168 Indians. Those Montagnais had already, in
1848, sent a deputation to Father Tache at Lake
Athabaska, saying on behalf of one of their oldest
men, "Make haste to come, for my head is now
white, and I do not want to die without hearing the
good words of your lips."
Father Gascon, O.AI.L, who died at St. Boniface
in 1914, aged 87 years, and Father Dupire, who is
still very much alive, were the pillars of St.
Joseph's Mission during the 45 years between 1858
and the arrival of the Nuns. It was Father Dupire,
O.M.I.^ who had the honour of welcoming the first
Grey Nuns in 1903, after he had been in charge of
that Mission for a quarter of a century.
Fort Resolution, which is the rendezvous of a
great many good Catholic Indians, was one of the
best sites that could be chosen for a Catholic school.
164
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICK
Right Revkrend Bishop Gabriel Brevnat,
O.M.I., D.D.
Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie.
165
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR N ORTH
Mgr. Breynat, the first Vicar Apostolic of Mac-
kenzie, lost no time in begging the Reverend
Mother Hamel, at Montreal, to come to his assist-
ance. The good Nuns hearkened to the appeal,
and were content with the same old conditions as
their predecessors: to pray, and work, and fast, as
in partnership with the Missionary Fathers.
Sisters Boisvert (Superior), Genereux, Mc-
Quillan, Honorine, and Ernestine left Montreal on
April 20, 1903, and on June 16 reached Great Slave
Lake, on board the Saint Alphonsus, accompanied
by Mgr. Breynat and Fathers Duport, O.AI.I.^ and
Laperriere, O.M.I. They were received by the peo-
ple of the place with affection and curiosity. But
one of the Indian women said that a red habit
would have been much prettier!
The Bishop and the Nuns, as they approached
the landing place, were greatly surprised to see
only the frame-work of a house, where they ex-
pected to find a Convent not only roofed in, but
quite ready for occupation. "We did not know
you were coming," were the first words they heard.
The explanation was soon discovered. When
going to Europe in the summer of 1902, Mgr.
Breynat told Father Dupire that if he succeeded in
getting the Nuns to come in the spring, he would
send him word to push forward the completion of
the Convent with all speed. In case no such mes-
166
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICh
sage came, Father Dupire was to attend to other
pressing work during the winter. The Bishop hav-
ing gained his point at Montreal, wrote at once;
but the letter reached Fort Resolution a month
later than the Nuns themselves.
This was how it came to pass that the Nuns
'who were to found St. Joseph's Hospice began in
greater poverty and misery than any of their Sis-
ters. At Providence the hrst Nuns had found some
sort of house ready for them; at Lake Athabaska
they had, after all, a shed for their own use; at
Fort Resolution they had to be content with a bor-
rowed garret.
Sister Boisvert, wrote back to the Mother
House: "On June 16, we reached at last our prom-
ised land. Our first visit was to the Church, to
adore our Divine Master, and to make an offering
of ourselves for all the work that we might be able
to do for his glory, and for the salvation of souls.
We gave thanks also to God for having brought us
in safety, through all difficulties and dangers to the
very end of our journey. The fatigue, the bad
weather, the cold, instead of prostrating us, seemed
to give new strength to those who had none, and to
improve the health of those who were already fair-
ly robust. The only exception to this rule is little
Sister Ernestine. She has been unwell all the time,
not being able to retain any nourishment. At St.
167
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Albert, she seemed to improve, but, as soon as we
started ofif again, she was greatly troubled by what
we thought at first to be a mosquito bite, but is
really much more serious. I am making this dear
Sister rest, and am taking care of her as best I can.
"To our disappointment, we are not in our Con-
vent. The building is not at all ready yet. We*
hope it will be finished by the beginning of August.
Meanwhile we are installed in the garret. We
could not have begun in greater povert3^ Is it not
a good sign?"
The hovel in which the poor Sisters had to
lodge was the place in which the harness for the
dogs, the sledges, and various implements, were
kept. It was also the storehouse for the dried meat
and fish, and the other provisions, and like all such
houses in the Mackenzie country, it was swarming
with mice. It was four feet in height, and the
Nuns went on their knees to reach the little couches
assigned to them. In such a home, they spent those
summer days which in the North are as hot as if
the country never knew frost and snow.
On July 24 came deliverance. The Oblate
Brothers, freed from the Saint Alphonsus, after the
annual visits to various out stations, had been busy
on land. By July 23 they had begun to lay down
the flooring. At 4 p.m. the next day, the Nuns were
installed in their Hospice, with three little girls,
168
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICK
and two little boys, given to them that very day by
their Indian parents, who were returning to the
woods for the winter. The new house had as yet
no rooms, and no partitions. Blankets were hung
up to serve instead. And the way "upstairs" was
by means of a ladder.
The first thing to be done for school children in
the North is to give them a thoroughly good wash-
r.rrTLE Dog-Ribs Indians, at Play.
ing. The poor blear-eyed little creatures arrive in
rags, and filthy rags, crawling with vermin. An
hour later you would take them for pretty little
white children. But they have first to be made
white! iVnd how they dread their first bath! On
July 24, Sister Honorine, taking a child out of the
bath, left him down quietly in a heap of chips,
169'
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
whilst going one step to find a little article or two
to put on him. The one step was enough. When
she turned round again, the carpenter's shavings
were in motion, and the little Indian was making
a bee line for liberty and his native woods. For-
tunately, one of the Brothers caught him before he
had gone far, and brought him back to have a
chance of losing his fear of clean water, and clean
clothes.
By degrees the new Convent got into working
order, and began to have some furniture. But
there was much opportunity for mortification.
Father Dupire writes in his chronicle of events:
"On August 30, Brother O'Connell set up the
stoves in the Hospice, where the Sisters had been
shivering with cold, for their house admitted the
too fresh breezes "on all sides. God alone knows
what immense treasures of merit those good Sisters
acquired in the trying circumstances in which they
were placed. I certainly did all that was possible
— and impossible — to spare them so much suffer-
ing, although they bore everything not only with
courage and patience, but with a smile on their
lips. No one has more reason than I have to recog-
nize their pre-eminent worth as auxiliaries of the
Missionary Priest, and to appreciate their self-
abnegation and devotedness."
For six years, their first house — twenty feet by
170
ST. josp:ph's hospice
thirty served tlie .\uns as their Hospice of St.
Joseph. Kven three years would have been too
long. Father Mansoz, who was Father Dupire's
assistant when the Nuns arrived, tells us of what he
saw with his own eyes. "The temporary building
accommodated five Nuns and twenty-five children,
for the first three years. But when there were nine
Nuns and forty-five pupils, the conditions were no
longer tolerable. In the dav-time it was not too
hard to find room for all. But at night it was piti-
ful, though marvellous, to see how the little ones
were stowed aw^ay in regular lines, some of them on
tables or in cupboards, only one corner of the house
being reserved for the Sisters themselves. God
Almighty must have w^atched specially over those
poor orphans and their guardians. But it was high
time to do something to improve their position.
Work was pushed on with extraordinary haste, and
by December, 1909, the new convent had been
built, as well as a house for the Bishop."
Between 1906, w^hen Father Mansoz, O.M.I., was
placed in charge of the Mission, and December,
1909, wonderful was the amount of work put out
of hand. The main building of the Convent called
for 20D,000 feet of timber, and the saw mill to pre-
pare them had first to be built. Fathers and Bro-
thers, following the Bishop's example, set to work
with a will. In March and April, 1907, the found-
171
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
ations of the mill were laid, in spite of intense
cold. Beginning in the month of May, the mill
attacked an enormous raft of 500 blocks of wood,
and, as soon as the planks were ready, the Convent
and the Bishop's house were begun.
Mgr. Breynat decided to build in the forest,
because on the Mission property within the sur-
veyed limits of Fort Resolution there would not
have been room enough. A site therefore had to
be cleared, and the foundations of the new build-
ings were laid by the Brothers before the winter
set in.
In June, 1908, Brother O'Connell, Brother
Kerautret, M. Gagnon, and some Indians or Half-
Breeds resumed work. When winter came again
they had to turn to other tasks, especially to the fish-
ing, which was very unsatisfactory that year. The
summer of 1909 had to pass without either Convent
or Bishop's House being habitable. Yet all were
longing to take possession of them.
'On All Souls' Day," Father Mansoz tells us,
work began again with almost feverish haste. The
Bishop had come to the conclusion that it would be
possible to occupy the new buildings before the
year was out. He himself therefore, and the Fath-
ers and Brothers, gave up their days to manual
labour. The Sisters, on their part, during the last
fortnight of November, were very busy removing
172
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICE
and replacing, packing and unpacking, upsetting
and re-arranging, in making the welcome change
from the old house to the new. Day by day, the
children in joyous groups carried their little load,
feeling quite proud to be helping in furnishing
their new palatial abode. The day of taking pos-
session was a day of joy for all, since all had had a
share in the toil which brought round that day so
very soon. On the first Sunday in December, 1909,
a Mass of thanksgiving was sung in the Convent
Chapel. The feast of the Immaculate Conception,
December 8, was, of course, a feast day. There
was no need of toasts or speeches. The chattering
and laughter of the children told eloquently enough
the feelings that filled all hearts. And what a hap-
piness to anyone with a missionary spirit, to suc-
ceed in bringing sunshine into our neighbours'
lives!"
To the Mother House at Montreal Sister St.
Albine wrote, in order to make others partners in
the joy felt at St. Joseph's Hospice. "We have had
great changes here," she said, "since the visit of our
good Mother Vicaress. Sometimes we can hardly
persuade ourselves that it is not all a delightful
dream. But it is quite real : we have actually taken
possession of our beautiful new Convent. When
Mgr. Breynat returned from France, he pushed
matters forward so rapidlv that by the beginning
173
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
IT,
i-t
O
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Q
Z
z
>
o
174
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICE
of December we had begun to transfer our goods
and chattels from the old house to the new. What
a time of rejoicing and of giving thanks to God!
Though there was no one who was not very
fatigued, yet joy was written on every countenance.
The Bishop himself looked like one from whose
shoulders a heavy burden had been lifted at
last. I cannot tell you how kind and .generous this
good Bishop is in our regard. When he had
blessed our new house, he officiated at Benediction
of the Blessed Sacrament, during which our hymns
gave expression, out of full hearts, to our gratitude
to God, and to our Blessed Patron and Father, St.
Joseph, for the successful issue of an undertaking
whose success might sometimes have appeared to
be outside the range of possibility.
"Though our Convent is only half finished, it is
quite comfortable. The rooms are large and well
lighted. The little chapel is pretty and devotional.
The heating apparatus works well, and makes us
forget the rigour of our Arctic frosts. Even the
flies and mosquitoes enjoy the warmth : they have
come to life, and are buzzing around, thinking that
summer is here. When the summer really comes,
they will surely make us pay for our present com-
fort."
Comfort in Mackenzie! Poor Sisters! They
had not to wait for the mosquito season for their
175
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
penances. Even in a gilded cage there may be dis-
comfort, and perhaps hunger. As a matter of fact,
another communication to the Mother House ran
as follows : — "We cannot take more children, not
being able to feed them. Part of the fish supply of
last autumn was spoiled in the thaw. The fishing
under the ice just now brings in very little com-
pared with our numbers. There have been no cari-
bou this winter, and our provisions are exhausted.
In our present critical circumstances we can only
have recourse to our Protector, St. Joseph. Our
distressful condition makes us feel more than ever
that we belong to God alone. We are happy to be
suffering something for the sake of the glorious
work to which God has called us."
The chronicler of St. Joseph's Mission House
has ajso left us an account of that sad time of dis-
tress, but he is able to wind up with prayer and
praise i-n honour of the Nursing Father of the poor
Mackenzie Missions. He writes: "The year 1910
was rich in crosses, especially the first four months.
Fortunately, the Bishop was with us, to cheer us
and guide us. Our storehouse was empty; even the
mice seemed to mourn. The rations of the sixty
children had to be made slighter than ever. Trust-
ing in Divine Providence, we did all that was
humanly possible for the relief of ourselves and our
dependents. We had fifty fishing lines near the He
l"'76
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPICE
aux CEufs (Egg Island), eighteen miles from the
Convent; many also, with some nets, near the
Brule islands. These last were no good, but as the
first did passably well, we continued fishing there
until the end of March, the time when the carp
appear in the Riviere au Boeuf ( Buffalo river).
After the annual retreat in February, Brothers
Josso, William and Kerautret left for the shanties
in the woods, whilst Father Duport and Brother
Jean-Marie continued the fishing, bringing in on
an average fifteen trout after each venture. As the
only dogs they had were old ones, unfit for a good
journey, our two fishermen suffered a great deal on
the Lake. God bless their generosity and self-
sacrifice. It was they who succeeded in keeping
the children alive.
"The trout of our great lakes in the North be-
comes distasteful and unwholesome, when there is
no variety. The children made a novena to St.
Joseph begging him to send them a morsel of meat.
On the great Patriarch's, feast day, March 19, we
got half a dozen moose. Many were the thanks-
givings. Great was the joy of all, and especially of
the bursar. Father Duport, who once more saw
his larder well stocked."
Such are the little histories, hardly known
except in heaven, which show us how the years pass
177
12
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
in suffering nobly borne, in the Missions of the
Far North.
St. Joseph's Convent, at Fort Resolution, Great
Slave Lake, is now a completed building. With its
fifty v^^indows or doors, on a front of 144 feet, with
its handsome mansard roof, crowned with a belfry,
on which a white cross shines, this Hospice of St.
Joseph is the finest religious monument in the Mac-
kenzie Vicariate. In this community ten mission-
ary Sisters are now giving a Christian education to
a hundred children, whom they have gathered out
of all the woods which border the Slave River and
the Great Lake.
178
CHAPTER VIII.
NEW FOUNDATIONS
Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, MacMurray,
The Eskimos (igi4-l6)
Fort Saiith.— The Montagnais Mission of St.
Isidore at Fort Smith is the threshold of the Mac-
kenzie Vicariate Apostolic. It was founded by
Father Gascon, who used to visit the place occa-
sionally from Great Slave Lake. Its first resident
priest — in 1888 — was Father Joussard, the present
Coadjutor of the Right Rev. Bishop Grouard.
Fort Smith, on the Slave River, and almost on
the northern border line of Alberta, is at the foot of
the last of those rapids which hinder navigation
towards the Arctic regions. By reason of its posi-
tion, it is an emporium for the great waterways of
Alberta and Mackenzie. What will it be in the
future, when the natural resources of the North
begin to be exploited, and when the inexhaustible
water-power of that spot begins to be harnessed in
the service of man? The Vicar Apostolic, the
Right Rev. Bishop Breynat, having an eye for the
times, has made it his care to establish a school and
a hospital at Fort Smith. They are both in charge
179
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
o
o
X
u
X
I-
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o
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en
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180
NEW FOUNDATIONS
of the Grey Nuns — the Hospital since 1914, and
the school since 1915.
The Foundresses are Rev. Mother Leveille,
(Provincial and Local vSuperior), Sister Fortin,
Sister Gadbois, and Sister Baudry, who after a
while was replaced by Sister Jobin. The Nuns
reached Fort Smith on the eve of the feast of St.
John Baptist. The Hospital building had been
barely begun. A small lean-to-shed was the
Nuns' first residence. Their first patient got the
Bishop's room in the Mission House. However,
the saw mill at Fort Resolution had done good
work; the planks were all on the ground at Fort
Smith, and, under the skilful hand and eye of
Brother Josso, the Hospital was very soon ship-
shape.*
On August 24, 1914, the Grey Nuns took posses-
sion of the present Hospital, which is meant to be
the right wing of a large building. Father Man-
soz, Superior at St. Isidore's, said the first Mass in
the Hospital on September 8, the feast of the Nativ-
ity of our Blessed Lady. On the last day of 1914,
he wrote: "Blessed be God for the success of this
great and good work, the Hospital, which will be
*One of the principal workmen engaged upon the Fort Smith
Hospital was Isidore Mercredi, a former pupil of the Lake
Athabaska Convent, who became a first-rate carpenter and joiner
as an apprentice of the well-known Brother Ancel, o.m.i.
181
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the beginning of blessings and prosperity for the
Mission at Fort Smith.''
The Hospital was already too small in 1916,
and it has lately been enlarged.*
After the Hospital comes the school. The
handsome little school at Fort Smith was opened
on September 6, 1915. and it was filled from the
very first day, to the surprise of all who were
accustomed to Indian indifference.
Protestants as well as Catholics still flock in at
the first sound of the bell, even though there may
be, as sometimes happens at Fort Smith, 90 or over
100 Fahr. degrees of frost.t Nay, it appears the
children enjoy their schooling! On January 24,
1916, the eve of the centenary celebration of the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Sister Gadbois said
to her pupils:
"To-morrow will be a great feast day; would
you like to have a holiday, or to come to school?"
"School, if you please. Sister," they all said.
The teacher on all such occasions since then con-
tents herself with saying, "To-morrow will be a
*The first year's report of the Hospital mentions 1582 cases
of bandaging or dressing, 1642 prescriptions bj^ the doctor or
the Head Nurse, 578 visits to the sick in their own homes, six
surgical operations, and two deaths.
jAt Fort Smith and Fort Resolution the Grey Nuns are in
charge of a Government weather bureau, and of course they send
in their most useful reports very regularly.
182
NEW FOUNDATIONS
holiday," and the little red faces have to look re-
signed. The only time of the year disliked by Fort
Smith pupils is the vacation. Now, what do our
paleface scholars say to this?
Fort Smith, like other places in the North, is
At Day^ School, in Fort Smith.
no stranger to privations. In the autumn, winter,
and spring of 1915-16, the two religious commun-
ities there were left without potatoes, the bread of
the poor. A great frost in September had blighted
the crop in the ground. Fortunately, the neigh-
1 83
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
bouring Mission, St. Joseph's, Great Slave Lake,
was well supplied that year. But this neighbour-
hood is 190 miles away, and it was only after nine
months that it was able to relieve Fort Smith.
Fort Simpson. — Simpson, as it now begins to be
called, is the heart of the Mackenzie district.
It is central between Fort Smith and the Arctic
Ocean. It stands where the Liard River, rushing
from the Southwest with a more impetuous cur-
rent than the great Mackenzie itself, joins that
broad river on the way to the North. The Liard
brings to Simpson all the peltries of Fort Liard
and Fort Nelson. For these reasons, Fort Simp-
son, under the Fludson's Bay Company, has been
the centre of their Mackenzie district. Of the
chief officials who succeeded each other there,
many were of just, and even of liberal disposition,
entirely worthy representatives of a Company
styled ''Honourable." But there were some
exceptions.
In the nature of things, in such a centre as Simp-
son, so far removed from the ordinary resources of
civilization, there could not but be some reasons for
calling to mind the word Babylon. There was in-
deed in that place a great deal of lawlessness, of
license, and of sin.
Father Grollier, O.M.I. , in 1858 was the first
184
NEW FOUNDATIONS
Priest to visit Fort Simpson. By a happy inspira-
tion, he dedicated the Mission there to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. See how the Sacred Heart has
triumphed! After all the sadness and sorrow, and
suffering of the missionaries-— for a long time seem-
ingly fruitless — they are now able to report that
nearly all the Indians of that region are Catholic
Christians, though they are not yet quite perfect!
Perhaps, in time to come, Simpson, like some
other old ''Forts," will become a commercial cen-
tre, and even a city. In that case, the Sisters will
be on guard to forward the interests of the Sacred
Heart.
In 1911 the Canadian Government established
at Simpson an Indian Agency, to watch over the
interests of the Indians, and to represent the Gov-
ernment in a great many public affairs. The first
agent was Mr. Gerald Card, a gentleman whose
justice and friendliness to the Catholics are an
honour to the Protestant body. In 1912, Mr. Card
consulted with Father Andurand, the priest of Fort
Simpson, about the possibility of establishing there
a General Hospital for the benefit of the Slave, the
Hareskin, and the Loucheux tribes of the Lower
Mackenzie. In July of the same year, Mgr. Brey-
nat, passing through Fort Simpson, approved and
accepted the proposal made. In 1914 he chose the
site for the Hospital, and, that summer. Fathers
185
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Andurand, and Moisan, with Brother Kraut, and
Mr. Ouellet, a young Canadian carpenter, laid the
foundations of a three-storey building, forty feet by
sixty. Mr. Card provided the timber, and ren-
dered many other services. He also obtained from
the Government in Ottawa the means of furnishing
the Hospital.
In 1915 the Hospital was ready for occupation.
By what was afterwards seen to be a remarkably
Providential arrangement, the Sisters who were
expected then failed to come.* In 1916 they were
installed. They were Sister Girouard (formerly
Superior at St. Joseph's Hospice), Sister Boursier,
Sister Latremouille, and Sister Mary. Passing
through Fort Providence, the Sisters brought away
with them, to the new Hospital, many of the sick
people whom they found there.
A few days after their arrival at Fort Simpson,
namely, on August 15, 1916, they had the melan-
choly consolation of closing the eyes of the devoted
apostle of the Hareskins, Father Ducot, whose
forty-one years of missionary life had been divided
between Fort Good Hope, Great Bear Lake, and
Fort Norman. The Sisters at Providence had
*The furniture, and the dispensary outtit, for the Hospital
were on board the steamer MacMurray (on which the Nuns
were to have taken their passage), which was wrecked in the
Peace river in July, 1915. It was only in 1916 that these losses
to the Simpson Hospital were made good.
186
NEW FOUNDATIONS
thought themselves under particular obligations to
Father Ducot; he had taken a great interest in
sending children from the more northerly posts to
be placed under their care, and he had been very-
generous in 1881, in a way of which some mention
has been made already. Leaving this world for
Heaven — as we confidently hope — on the feast of
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin whom he had
always loved so ardently, and had taught the In-
dians to love, Father Ducot left after him as a
blessing upon the infant establishment of the Sisters
of Charity at Fort Simpson that most precious
inheritance, the holy death of a servant of God.
The Hospital at Simpson, 160 miles down the
Mackenzie river, and, therefore, further north,
from Notre Dame de la Providence, is at this
moment the most distant Mission station of the
Grey Nuns. They have gone there in that spirit of
ardent charity towards the poor, which they make
the fourth of their religious vows. Such true Sis-
ters of Charity will assuredly be the means of
spreading the kingdom of God, the reign of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, even in quarters where
religion is now ignored.
MacMurray. — MacMurray, 184 miles south of
Lake Athabaska, is at the northern extremity of the
long chain of rapids of the Athabaska River. For a
187
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
long time, the missionaries could do no more than
pay occasional visits to the very small population
of Fort MacMurray. In 1906 there came a sudden
change. Asphalt, petroleum, and the promise of
other sources of wealth, brought commercial com-
panies to MacMurray, and the population began
to increase. It was decided to make a railway con-
nection with Edmonton in the south.
The moment had come for a permanent Catho-
lic Mission, with a resident priest, at MacMurray.
Father Laffont, O.M.I., was, therefore, transferred
from Nativity Mission, Lake Athabaska, and
directed to found — in poverty, always — the par-
ish that is to be. His parishioners were a mixed
lot: whites of all sorts, and from all points of the
compass; "Montagnais, religiously disposed, gen-
tle, easily led, and very fond of singing hymns;
Crees, superstitious, lazy, fond of dancing, and in
church as mute as carp." Father Laffont preached
to them every Sunday in French, English, Cree and
Montagnais. He had no need to make use of his
Italian or Spanish.
When 1915 came round, he wrote: "The mis-
sionary wants to have a hospital here. Or rather,
not he, not the priest, but the people, the parish
ioners. MacMurray is becoming what they call a
hive of industry. This means machinery, and
machinery means accidents. We must have a Hos-
188
NEW FOUNDATIONS
pital, and we must have Nursing Sisters. Please to
recollect that we are 300 miles away from all pos-
sibility of medical or surgical treatment. I have
seen Nursing Sisters at work, and I know that with
them we shall have a good hospital, and we shall be
content."
Father Lafifont continued in the same letter:
"Now the children also must be considered. I
seem to see our Divine Lord setting them in the
midst, and caressing their innocent little heads. I
want to give them Holy Communion, but they need
much and continuous instruction. It may be asked
if their mothers cannot instruct them. Perhaps in
some cases. But some of them have no mothers
alive. In other cases, the mother says she cannot
do everything; she is toiling and moiling from
morning till night. So w^e must have a school.
We must have Catholic teachers, to speak to the
children of God and holy things, and to make them
learn to read their catechism, as the best of all
books."
Once more it will be the Grey Nuns who will
be the nursing mothers and the teaching mothers,
hastening to the help of the sufferer and the child.
The Convent at MacMurray will naturally become
the Provincial House. The Sisters going there, in
times to come, will complete in one day the journey
of 300 miles, seeing only from cushioned cars
189
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
those cascades and roaring rapids of which some
account has been given on an earlier page. These
modern travellers will be sure to find at MacMur-
ray the aflfection and calm of a second Mother
House, from which, refreshed in spirit, they will
A Group of Missionary Sisters of Mackenzie, 1916.
go forth, like their predecessors, over the smooth-
flowing river and the stormy lakes, to give their
services to the poor of Christ.
The future historian of MacMurray m2Ly per-
haps be pleased to find in our pages the story of the
190
NEW FOUNDATIONS
way in which Reverend Mother Piche and her
travelling companion inaugurated the famous
Northern railroad in September, 1917. When on
their way to the Jubilee festival at Providence,
early in the spring of the year, they took train from
Edmonton to the Peace River. Following that
river, Rocher River, Slave River, Great Slave
Lake, and the Mackenzie, they reached Fort Simp-
son. On their return journey, they took the same
course reversed, except that they left on their right
the Peace River, sailing instead by Lake Athabas-
ka, and Athabaska River, as far as MacMurray, the
advertised terminus of the new line. The journey
had been very fatiguing, yet, without any of those
accidents which give such a terrible reputation to
the Wild North. The Mother General, having
had incidents and accidents enough in 1912, was
not sorry to have escaped so well in 1917. But
Mother St. John Baptist, who wished to learn by
experience all that her Sisters in the North have
to sufifer, seemed quite disappointed to have
reached MacMurray, which, at present, would
mean trains and civilization. But civilization it-
self came to her relief. The MacMurray terminus
was twenty miles away, where the trains, if they
ever arrived, stopped in the middle of the forest.
The travellers had to go by boat eighteen miles on
the little Clearwater River, which brought them
191
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
within three miles of the terminus. Eight miles of
the little voyage were delightful. The banks of
the Clearwater are enchantingly beautiful. Sud-
denly however all poetry was ended. The gasoline
boat had not sufficient depth of water. The travel-
lers had to change to a small flat-bottomed boat,
which the oarsmen were sometimes obliged to drag
with ropes. In those ten miles, within the supposed
bounds of civilization, our two Nuns had to put up
with more hardships than in the 2,220 miles which
they had travelled in the preceding five months. At
last, they were landed at the foot of a cliff, up
which they had to climb, over a winding trail, by
no means easy to negotiate. For three miles, the
whole party had to march, usually climbing,
through a primeval forest where the branches were
very troublesome, and the mud like stickfast paste.
The train arrived in the evening, to begin its
return journey four days later! The Nuns camped
out in an open wagon during three very frosty
nights. But their courage and good humour were
edifying. One morning, when Mother St. John
Baptist seemed to think the night had been cold,
the Mother General laughingly said, "Ah, you
wanted to be so brave last night: you would not
take your precautions. Serves you right!"
At last the train started. It jolted along for
four miles, over rails resting on the muskeg
192
NEW FOUNDATIONS
(swamp). Then it stopped for the night. Next
day it did fifteen miles, and then left the rails alto-
gether. The first car lay at a very awkward angle.
The guard sought a long time for help which
never came. At last, as the engine and tender had
kept the rails, the passengers were invited "on
board" of these. Thirty persons took their places
there, somewhat like gipsies in a caravan, though
not in such security. The Nuns got the place of
honour in the tender. At the first unsteady move
of the engine, they received a full discharge of
smoke and coal dust in the eyes. The wind was
blowing the wrong way! It so continued for forty-
eight miles. When the Nuns reached Lac La
Biche Mission, they were like negroes. Their veils
and cloaks were very dusty, and their habits were
no longer grey. All these particulars we have
learned from their fellow passengers — Bishop
Breynat, Fr. Lefebvre, and Father Falaize — who
travelled on top of the coal.
The Eskimos. — In 1860, on the Feast of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a day of special devo-
tion with the Grey Nuns, Father Grollier, near the
mouths of the Mackenzie, made an Eskimo chief
and a Loucheux chief join hands in his, and swear,
at the foot of the Cross, that they would hencefor-
ward live in peace with each other. It was a
193
13
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
triumph of religious influence over old customs of
treachery and slaughter — a triumph on one side at
least, for the Loucheux in great numbers have been
made Christians.
For the Eskimo race, however, the day of con-
version does not as yet appear to have dawned.
In 1892, though knowing of the failure of
others, the youthful Father Lefebvre, O.M.I.^ made
a new attempt to preach the Gospel truths to that
deceitful and superstitious race. He hardly gained
a hearing.
In a different part of the extreme North, in the
^'Barren Grounds" between Great Bear Lake and
the Arctic Ocean, Father Rouviere, O.M.I.^ sent by
Mgr. Breynat, found some Eskimos on the feast of
the Assumption, 1911, and had some hope of doing
good amongst them. In 1912 he was joined by
Father Le Roux, O.M.I. In 1913 these two mission-
aries left Great Bear Lake with an Eskimo tribe,
which they intended to accompany to the sea. Two
men of the tribe brutally murdered the two Priests.
The murderers were arrested in 1916. Accord-
ing to the evidence collected by the brave men of
the Northwest Mounted Police, under Inspector
La Nauze, the murder took place at the end of
October, 1913. The missionaries were on their way
back from the Eskimo camp at Coronation Gulf,
intending to spend the winter in their hut at Great
194
NEW FOUNDATIONS
Bear Lake. They were followed by two Eskimos.
Father Le Roux, who was with the dog-sledge, was
stabbed in the back. The murderer, telling his
companion to finish the paleface, then siezed the
fowling piece, and shot Father Rouviere, who was
k^ _ '.><j»^k:.' - ^i£>* ■
An Eskimo Family of the Barren Land (Their Summer Camp).
Photo by M. Douglas, in "Lands Forlorn".
walking in front clearing a way for the dogs who
were hardly able to drag the sledge. The murder-
ers ate portion of the liver of their victims, saying
it had always been the custom to do this in former
times, whenever thev killed a white man. The
195
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
place of the terrible tragedy was near Bloody Fall,
on the Coppermine River, about fifteen miles from
the Arctic Sea. Some remains of the victims were
found there.*
We may hope that God will bless the work in
which the blood of his servants has been shed.
Bishop Breynat does not at all give up the project
of winning over the Eskimos to the knowledge of
Christ. On September 14, 1912, Father Rouviere
wrote: ^'I am still more hopeful than last year.
The little I taught them they have remembered,
and have even taught to others. If they persevere
in their good dispositions, they will, in a few years,
be as good Christians as our other Indians, or bet-
ter."
But Priests are wanted! The Eskimos have
killed only two. Not so the combatants in Europe.
What gaps there are in the priestly ranks, and in
scholastic houses! May the Divine Master deign
*There is another Eskimo Mission on the coast of Hudson
Bay, at Chesterfield Inlet, in the Vicariate Apostolic of Keewatin.
It was founded in 1912 by Fathers Turquetil, o.m.i., and Le Blanc,
o.M.T. This Mission also has provided its victim. Father Le Blanc
worn out in body and mind bj- the hardships of his position,
was returning to the Bishop's house at le Pas in northern ^lani-
toba when he was drowned. Mgr. Charlebois, o.m.i., wrote of him:
"My Vicariate loses in him a devoted and most self sacrificing mis-
sionary. I look upon him as having fallen a victim to his zeal for
the conversion of the poor pagan Eskimos. May his death along
with that of Fathers Le Roux and Rouviere hasten the conversion
of that unhappy race."
1%
NEW FOUNDATIONS
to send labourers into His vineyard, and remember
all souls redeemed by his Precious Blood; and
may he allow the blood that has been shed by cruel
hands in the Northern snow to be turned into a
dew of grace, falling upon the slayers and their
brethren.
. Yet Priests are not enough for the conversion of
those distrustful, selfish, deceitful tribes, bravely
forcing a livelihood from a seemingly hostile
nature, on the very borders of the world. It would
seem that teaching and preaching, on the part of
the suspected white men, will never suffice, of them-
selves, to introduce civilized and religious notions
among those poor types of humanity, whose present
notions have been "bred in the bone" for generation
after generation. Only the continued relief of their
actual needs, and the needs of their children will
find a way to their hearts. Only a personal devo-
tion, lessening or removing their physical and
moral miseries, will convince them of the truth of
a new message, so different from the old. Nowhere
in the world more than in the snow-houses of the
polar regions do human pain and anguish need the
ministry of the gentle hand, the tender heart, the
soul so steeped in the love of God that it has taken
on something of God's own love for repulsive and
sinful creatures. Will not Mother Church, at all
times the Nurse of the heroic, be able to supply the
ministering angels who are needed?
197
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
The question has been answered already. The
spiritual daughters of Mother d'Youville, the Sis-
ters of Charity, the (ircy Nuns of the North, are
only waiting for the signal, to go still further
North, even to the Dismal Lakes, and the Barren
His Grace Bishop Breynat, O.M.I.
On a Pastoral Tour.
Lands, and the ice-huts of the Eskimos. These
women, who labour in the Gospel, have already
promised Mgr. Breynat, "the Bishop of the Nortli
Pole," that he may appeal to them once more with
all confidence, and that they will be ready to set out
198
NEW FOUNDATIONS
as soon as his call is heard. So it will surely come
to pass that, through the spiritual children of the
Venerable Mother d'Youville, and of Bishop de
Mazenod, the ancient prophecy shall have fulfil-
ment, and a new canticle may be sung to the Lord,
because "all the ends of the earth have seen the
salvation of our God."
The perpetual winter, the infectious igloos (or
ice-huts), and the degraded condition of the poor
Eskimos, do not frighten or fret the brave Grey
Nuns. It is in their Rule that they are to refuse no
kind of good work. We have been writing these
very lines on the banks of the Mackenzie, where we
have heard some veteran religious of the northern
convents say, with all cheerfulness, as if it were the
simplest thing in the world. "I should like very
much to be sent there: to be there would mean to
be doing missionary work indeed." And when-
ever the Bishop visits any of the Convents of the
Grey Nuns in his Vicariate, he is always sure to be
asked for news of the Eskimo Mission.
199
CHAPTER IX.
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
How can there be such courage in weak women,
those humble Sisters of Charity? Is there a fascin-
ation for them in continual self-sacrifice, such as
seems to be beyond the capacity of human nature?
What is it that enables them so to suffer and to do?
A reader of these pages, if a stranger to the
Christian Faith, would be brought face to face
with these questions, and therefore — as he would
think — either with downright folly, or with some
mystery hidden from his eyes. But for us there is
no mystery in the folly of the Cross. We know
where those hidden sources have their rise, which
give birth to so much self-immolation. We know
from what pierced Heart shoots forth the flame of
apostolic zeal, and this we must never tire of tell-
ing, for the glory of God, and for the honour of
the Catholic Church, the chief creator of heroic
souls.
We must proclaim also how the Divine good-
ness, which has the whole world in charge, strikes a
balance between this side and that, amid the varia-
tions which keep the world in being. The very
privations, which are inevitable in the northern
200
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
snows, are a positive help to length of life. The
death of Sister Hedwige Dandurand was an-
nounced in the following terms, in a circular of
March" 1878: "The first victim of the Missions of
the Far North. — For nearly twenty years, in faith,
obedience, and the most unselfish zeal, many of our
Sisters have been at work in the vast plains of Sas-
katchewan, and on the banks of the Great Lakes.
Privations, sufferings, and sacrifices have been the
lot of those courageous missionaries. Nevertheless,
strange to say, though most of them were of delicate
health, though they had no bread to eat, though
they were often hungry after their insipid plate of
fish, they continued to live and to work, year after
year. It is only now that the first victim has fallen,
in the person of this dear Sister, who has been laid
to rest in the cemetery of He a la Crosse, among
those Indians whom she looked upon as the chosen
portion of her inheritance."
The proverb then is true, that it is not misery
that kills.
From Lakp Athabaska in 1879, one of the Grey
Nuns wrote: "Though we have nothing but dried
fish, our health is not sufifering. On the contrary,
we were never so well as we are at present. Truly
is it said that what God takes away on one side, He
gives on another."
Even so : poor diet God makes nutritious, and
201
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the cold dry climate He makes bracing and health-
ful. Many a one of the Grey Nuns, whom con-
sumption would have carried ofif in her youth, if
she had remained in reach of the doctors, and medi-
cines, and comforts, in Montreal, was spared for a
long and sufficiently healthy life of usefulness, in
the rude Indian Missions of the North.
With health in Mackenzie, there is found also
the flower of peace, a light and happy heart. It is
not in those Northern convents, buried under the
snow for more than half the year, that the traveller
can see the ruffled brow of care. Indeed he will not
discover elsewhere such high glee, and such hearty
laughter. Let us hear what the Jubilarians of the
present day said of themselves in 1867: "Winter be-
gan on October 1. Everything freezes. In the
morning we find the water and the ink turned into
stone. This very morning, in 78 degrees of frost,
I had to put the ink over the fire, in order to con-
tinue my letter. However, I ought not to have said
that everything freezes. An exception has to be
made in favour of cheerfulness, and innocent mirth,
such precious possessions, particularly in the Mis-
sions of the Northwest."
Then, again, it must be borne in mind how
easily those good Nuns are contented. Chateaubri-
and, in his Memoires d'otitre-tombe, said, "True
happiness costs but little; the happiness which is
202
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
expensive is an inferior article." About the same
date, that is in* 1849, Father Tache, at lie a la
Crosse, writing even more wisely than Chateaubri-
and, said : "Hurrah for the North ! I think that of
all the countries in the world this is the one in
which it is easiest to learn the lesson, that man wants
but little here below to make him truly happy."
Louise of France, the Carmelite Nun, told her
visitor, Gustavus of Sweden, that, in her poor cell,
on her poor couch, she slept better than at Versail-
les. Something similar would, no doubt, be said by
our Missionary Sisters, in reply to any expression
of sympathy with their condition.
Nevertheless, let it not be supposed that the
rough, rude deserts of the North have any advan-
tages which would make a mortal willing to live
there, if it were not his own, his native, land. Those
who come in search of the rich furs of the north,
return as quickly as possible to their own warm
climes, and to civilized circles. They do not regret
that the winters which enrich them are over and
gone for ever. The happiness of the missionary
heart is not the natural growth of the frozen soil, or
the destructive tempest.
In a passage written by one of those whom we
may call the recluses of the Providence Mission we
are shown the real sources of their courage and
their joyous self-sacrifice. She wrote: "What is it,
203
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
m
a
o
o
o
z
{-
D
>
o
Z
<
o:
O
204
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
after all, to have charge of forty children, when one
thinks of the prosperous works of our Missions
elsewhere? But, then, we reflect on the value of
even one soul, and so we see reason to rejoice in
such good as we are able to do in this poor coun-
try, where, without missionaries, those children
would be brought up in paganism."
Reflection on the value of a soul, in other words,
lively faith in the Divine Redeemer and His Pre-
cious Blood, and in the true worth of the little ones
whom He set in the midst of His earthly kingdom
as our models, ah! there, indeed, is the lever which
moves even mountains in the Christian Church.
The e3^e of Faith is ever turned towards Heav-
en, the unfailing source of hope and joy. Listen:
"Our 30,000 fishes seem to be spoiling on ac-
count of the fine weather. Poor unpalatable fish!
We must only force ourselves to eat it. In heaven
will be the banquet of all delights."
So Sister St. Michael wrote in reference to the
famine of 1883 at Lake Athabaska, when some
mothers ate their children who died in the woods,
and some children ate their mothers. Sometimes
the Nuns, depending on what the orphans might
leave, went supperless to bed. Sister St. Michael
continues: "The other evening a child of six came
to rap at our room door, saying, 'Sister, me not able
to sleep : too hungry.' I am sure that in all the wide
205
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
world there can hardly be another country like
this, where miseries of all kinds keep each other
company. Surely it bears upon it all the marks of
the Path to Paradise."
On their Path to Paradise, so plainly marked
out in the Mackenzie country, the Missionary Sis-
ters never failed to find in abundance the food
which kept their souls alive and strong. Well they
knew and loved the inexhaustible sources out of
which spring up Faith, and Hope, and Charity,
and zeal for God's glory.
In the foremost place was a special devotion to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Their Foundress.
Mother d'Youville, had been one of the first to pro-
pagate, this devotion in Canada. She charged her
disciples also to foster it both in their own com-
munities, and wherever they were engaged in mis-
sionary work. Hence, the feasts of the Sacred
Heart, and the devotional observance of the First
Friday of each month, are in particular honour
wherever these Sisters are established. Their first
foundation in the Mackenzie Vicariate was the
Sacred Heart Hospital. The Heart of Jesus, rep-
resented on the Cross which they wear, sets their
own heart on fire with the spirit of self-sacrifice,
and most closely unites their life with that of their
Divine model, the victim of atoning Love. Conse-
quently, Our Divine Lord has blessed their under-
206
THE SOURCES OF DEVQTEDNESS
takings, has consoled them in their trials, has im-
parted to them the gift of touching the most hard-
ened sinners, and has written their own name on
His Heart, from which it shall never be effaced.
The Grey Nuns have well understood also that
with devotion to the Sacred Heart is joined devo-
tion to the Blessed Sacrament. When the first
Bishop of St. Albert, Mgr. Grandin, was pleading
with Pope Pius IX. for permission to reserve the
Blessed Sacrament, even where there could be no
"lamp of the sanctuary," he was not thinking only
of the Missionary Priests, but also of the equally
isolated Nuns, whose first residence he himself had
built at Fort Providence.
"But," said the Pope, "it is only in times of
persecution that it could be allowed to keep the
Blessed Sacrament, with no light burning before
it."
"Holy Father," said the poor Missionary
Bishop, "it is true we are not persecuted; but we
have to suffer so much, and we are so destitute of
all things ; we are often obliged, and we are already
permitted, to say Mass with only one light; to be
deprived of the presence of our Sacramental Lord
would be a terrible privation."
The Pope was touched and yielded. He said,
"My dear Bishop, I understand you: I understand
your need of that consolation. Your life of priva-
207
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
tion and sacrifice has all the merit of martyrdom,
without its glory."
The Nuns of the Far North, in their poor and
cold chapels, where for nearly fifty years there was
no lighted sanctuary lamp, were consoled by the
Eucharistic presence of Him, whom they faith-
fully guarded, and who was Himself their Guard-
ian. Morning by morning they unite with the
sacrifice of Calvary the unreserved offering of their
ovi^n lives; and the Divine Presence in the Holv
Communion brings into their souls strength enough
to bear the burden of another day. Can there ever
be more fervent or more fruitful Communions than
those made in the midst of the Northern desolation,
where there is nothing whatever to distract, where
there is no other attraction, or heart's ease, except
the presence and the love of our Divine Lord? We
do not wonder at finding, on some intimate pages,
the expression of the most ardent love and devotion
for the Holy Eucharist entertained by those Mis-
sionary Sisters. Sister Galipeau, of Montreal,
died at the Fort Providence Convent on June 27,
1893. Her Superior, writing to the Mother Gen-
eral, said: "She received the Last Sacraments on
May 28, the last Saturday of the month of Mary.
Seeing the Sisters weeping, she wept too. She was
reminded that she ought only to be glad since she
was going into the presence of her Heavenly
208
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
Father. She said, 'Yes, but to go to Heaven, I have
to leave you. Ah! if we might all go together!'
Her one desire was for Holy Communion. The
state of her throat, growing worse and worse,
threatened to make Communion impossible. A
doctor, on his way to Klondike, was called in to see
her. He saw that she had not long to live. He told
her, and she was perfectly content. She only asked
if his treatment could not enable her to receive
Holy Communion. That was her one desire — to
communicate, so as to be the better prepared to die
a holy death. Her devout desire was gratified by
the help of the doctor's care and remedies. It was
only two hours after her last Holy Communion
that she piously fell asleep in the Lord."
Along with her Divine Son, the Holy Mother,
the Blessed Virgin, Mary Immaculate, watches
over her children. All the way from the Pyrenees
to Providence, she sent them her white and blue
Lourdes statue, in circumstances that looked quite
marvellous. The case containing it reached He a la
Crosse just at the time of the Rising in 1885. The
pagans among the Indians and Half-Breeds, sack-
ing the Mission premises, broke the case open with
one blow of a hatchet, which slightly gashed the
face of the statue. The raiders were so frightened
at seeing this "woman in a coffin" that they ran off
209
14
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
with all speed. A Catholic Indian brought back
the statue to the Mission. In due course it reached
its destination, and at the present day it smiles upon
the devout clients of Our Lady in the Sacred Heart
Hospital at Providence. That statue and a cibor-
ium were the only objects saved at He a la Crosse
Mission in 1885!*
Among heavenly protectors, St. Joseph holds,
naturally, a very high place. He is indeed the
fatherly provider for all needs. With great con-
fidence is he invoked in times of trouble. St.
Joseph is no far-off personage, but the ever-present
father of the home, in the Missions of the North.
Everyone says quite familiarly, as if in his hearing,
''St. Joseph has done that"; "St. Joseph has given
us this"; "we must ask St. Joseph"; "let us make a
novena to St. Joseph." In truth, the novenas to St.
Joseph become so entangled, that only he himself
can tell which is which. There are novenas for
the fishing grounds, the hunting grounds, the gar-
den, and the water supply. Mgr. Breynat has
made St. Joseph the chief econome of his Vicariate,
*The news of the Rising reached the Nuns at Providence
the following year. They noticed stains of blood on cases which
the Indian porters were handling with evident repugnance, and
asked an explanation. The Indians said, "Those come from He
a la Crosse. There has been fighting there, and Nuns like you have
been killed." For a long time, this was all that the Nuns heard,
and thev did not know it was an exaggeration.
210
THE SOURCES OE DEVOTEDNESS
if Father Lefebvre is the second. Thanks are some-
times offered to St. Joseph in circumstances which
give witnesses their own long thoughts, although
the word miracle is not used, out of respect for
Church rules. Some there arc who think that the
J;
B^sS^^^^^BtSnl^
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.^l^^
lb
^
The Sewing Class.
Fancy work on reindeer skins, porcupine quills, fish scales, etc. The Indian
girls are very skilful in making articles of this kind, and give them willingly
to their benefactors.
Foster Father, before now, has had compassion on
a multitude, left with nothing to eat. Let us quote,
without comment, a letter written from Lake Atha-
baska, on September 8, 1912.
211
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
"Last year our potato crop was very poor. At
lirst there was talk of putting the children on
rations. In a fortnight the potatoes in the store-
house began to be so bad that the remaining good
ones had to be picked out by hand. There was no
use in trying to save them, we said. When they
were all gone, we should have to do without them.
But it is not for nothing that St. Joseph has charge
of our stores. Young and old have had potatoes
•three times a day until now, and never were the
potatoes so good at such a date. We all give the
heartiest thanks to our good provider, St. Joseph."
In the winter of 1916-17, the hunters had not
been able to kill even one moose. Consequently,
by the beginning of March, there was very little
fish left at St. Joseph's Mission, Fort Resolution.
Yet the next fishing season was two months away.
An Oblate Brother had nearly lost his life in mak-
ing efforts previously unheard-of to fish under the
ice. Yet he had caught nothing. The caribou
(reindeer) had not come near Fort Resolution for
several years, and, besides, it was now their season
for returning from the neighbourhood of Great
Slave Lake to the further north. What was to be
done? There were 100 children to be fed, ten
Nuns, and as many Oblates. And the thirty dogs
could not be forgotten, though some of them might
have to be sacrificed, if human beings were not to
die. 212
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
One evening, Father Duport, O.M.I., Superior of
the Mission, went to the children's refectory, where
the poor little ones were trying to make a meal of a
small portion of roasted fish. He put on a frown,
and said, "Children, the famine is not the fault of
the Brothers; they have done all that they possibly
could ; it is not the fault of your good Mothers here,
the Nuns; they have made every sacrifice; it is you
yourselves who are in fault." Some of them began
to sob, thinking the Superior was scolding them for
eating too much. But he said, "That is not what I
mean. If I am displeased, it is because you do not
pray well enough to St. Joseph." So, thereupon,
the children all stood up, and promised to pray
with all their heart and all their soul. The Rever-
end Mother was asked how many caribou would be
required. She said it would be impossible to get
through the long season before them with less than
a hundred. All then knelt down, and immediately
began a novena to St. Joseph for a hundred caribou.
Two days later, there was no more food left at
St. Joseph's Mission. Father Duport said to the
two hunters employed by the Mission: "Take the
dogs and sledge, and go and try your luck." They
shrugged their shoulders, saying it was quite use-
less, as there was nothing whatever to be had. "Go,
I tell you," said Father Duport; "kill us a hundred
caribou; St. Joseph owes them to us."
213
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
The two Indian hunters set out, though quite
sure they would have to return empty-handed.
They had gone only a two days' journey — a mere
trifle in the Wild North — when, to their surprise,
they saw an immense herd of caribou upon the
frozen Lake, and saw to their greater surprise, that
they were coming from the east*. The hunters
quickly recovered their wits, took up a good posi-
tion, and began to shoot. Alphonse, a particularly
good shot, sometimes brought down two or three
animals with one bullet. When their ammunition
was exhausted, the Indians counted their "bag."
They had killed 103 caribou. At that very time,
the orphans and the Nuns were repeating their
Novena prayers, and calling on St. Joseph to send
them a hundred, "and not one less."
Rev. Fr. Duport, to whom we owe these partic-
ulars, says in conclusion : "When you preach on St.
Joseph and his powerful intercession, you may well
mention our case, for I have had many reasons to
convince me that this glorious Saint is our heavenly
protector, and that it is he who provides for all our
wants in this immense and icy wilderness."
After Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, our Missionary
Sisters place confidence also in their Venerated
Foundress, Mother d'Youville, the thought of
w^hom is a perpetual inspiration to them in all their
214
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
labours for the sake of the Gospel. They love to
make a treasury of all the occasions of merit which
are so plentiful in the Far North, and to unite these
with all the prayers and sacrifices of all their con-
vents, and to present all this accumulated wealth
before the Throne of God, with a petition for the
solemn glorification of their beloved Foundress.
The Sisters of the North tell already of extraordin-
ary graces attributed to her intercession, and likely
to be humbly submitted to the judgment of the
Church. They tell of the wonderful cure of Father
Rapet in 1885, after he had spent thirty-three days
in a hut, in very bad weather, in order to be near
the Nuns who had left He a la Crosse during the
Insurrection. They tell also of three fires suddenly
extinguished at Lake Athabaska, and of other mar-
vellous events. And they feel very happy under
the special protection of such a Mother, whom they
invoke with all confidence, in their private prayers.
What may be considered part of their filial de-
votion to Mother d'Youville is that passionate de-
votion which St. Paul called the folly of the Cross.
We believe that there is not one of the Grey Nuns
who would not be bitterly disappointed if, on
reaching the Mackenzie Missions, she found that
the sufferings of the early days were all past and
gone. One young Nun, among the first who were
sent to Great Slave Lake, thus expressed her feel-
215
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
ings: "Evidently it is our Divine Lord's wish that
all our Missions should have the Cross in their
foundation, so that we may be the true children of
Mother d'Youville. Here and now, we have the
honour of being able to imitate her in the priva-
tions of our present life, and to prove to our Heav-
enly Spouse that it is our happiness to fulfill the
promises which we made Him on the day of our
religious profession."
In the Annals of the Mother House at Montreal
we find an entry which ought to find its place here :
— "When it became known that Sister Pigeon was
to go to the North, her mother was greatly dis-
tressed. Following only the impulses of a mother's
heart, Madame Pigeon begged and prayed that she
might be spared this sacrifice. She represented in
particular that her daughter had never been able
to eat fish, and that she would die, if sent where
there was no other food. Our Reverend Mother
General thought it right to yield. Without tell-
ing Sister Pigeon, she brought Sister Metivier from
Lawrence, to take her place. But when Sister
Pigeon heard what had happened, and saw another
Sister ready to make the sacrifice in her stead, she,
in her turn, was inconsolable. She hastened to be-
seech the Mother General not to change the orig-
inal appointment. It was true, she said, that she
had not eaten fish, but that was because other food
216
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
was to be had. Where there would be nothing but
fish, of course she would have to eat it. Then, get-
ting permission to send for her mother, she repre-
sented to her that God Almighty was asking them
both for a sacrifice, which they had no right to
refuse. At last, the loving mother agreed to let her
daughter go, with her blessing. But there was a
new difliculty. Sister Metivier said she had her
obedience for the North, and she wanted to go.
Some of the witnesses of the little debate between
these two courageous souls, vying with each other
in generosity, were moved even to tears. However,
Sister Pigeon, being on the first list, was allowed to
have her way."
This victory of daughter and mother, in a sub-
lime contest between natural love and the love of
the Cross, had its counter-part in the victory for
self-sacrifice gained in a contest between a fervent
young Nun and her Mother Superior. This Super-
ior, afterwards to be the Mother General of the
Grey Nuns, considered a certain Sister lately pro-
fessed to be absolutely necessary in the house where
they both were. But one day the Mother General
of the time came to the Community to ask for a
"volunteer" for the Far North. The first to raise
her hand was our young Sister, and therefore she
was chosen. But the Local Superior had many
objections to make, and would not yield until the
217
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
young Nun said at last: "Mother, I have made this
sacrifice, and the sacrifice of my life, for the con-
version of a member of my family." She went,
after heart-rending farewells, for her relations and
friends were very numerous. She escaped death
by a sort of miracle on one of the north bound
barges. The conversion for which she longed was
granted, and she takes it as sufficient reward for
the heroism with which she remains at her post for
the last twenty years.
After hearing of such devotedness and self-den-
ial, we need not be surprised to find that the only
real trials of those Grey Nuns, the only trials which
leave them inconsolable, are the limits imposed
upon their endeavours to assist their neighbour.
Mother Charlebois, after a visit to the Convents in
the North, wrote: "I can understand now how
painful it is for those dear Sisters to be forced to
refuse poor orphans, little girls abandoned by their
kin, and poor neglected old women. The sacrifices
and continual privations of the Sisters are nothing,
compared with this powerlessness to do more good.
I share their regret and pain, whilst I pray God to
inspire some generous souls to come to their assist-
ance."
There is another point on which we must dwell
a little here. The royal Psalmist proclaims how
218
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
good and how pleasant it is for those who form one
family, and who dwell together in unity. The Sis-
ters of Charity are to each other sisters indeed, and
cherish each other with sisterly afifection, all rejoic-
ing to be in the arms of the same Heavenly Mother,
Mary Immaculate, all kneeling side by side, at the
foot of the same Tabernacle, in the land of exile,
far from any earthly home. And their domestic
charity, circulating through all the veins of each
far-flung community, returns also to the fountain-
head and heart; thoughts, desires, and aspirations
are always centered in the dear Mother House of
the whole Order.
It has been our privilege to read, and to hear,
and to observe, much that concerns the Grey Nuns
of Montreal. The result has been our strong con-
viction that this Religious Institute is God's own
handiwork, and that neither death, nor persecu-
tion, nor lapse of time, nor loss, shall ever prevail
against it. And one great motive of this conviction
isl the holy charity which joins all the members to-
gether, the love of the daughters for their mother,
their attachment to that cradle of their religious
life from which their mission work separates them.
Go into the communities of the Far North, and
you will find yourself in the atmosphere of the
Mother House. The thought of the Mother Gen-
eral, and her Assistants, and of each one's fellow-
219
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
novices, and of the seniors who have borne the bur-
den of the day — such thought is never long absent.
AH that is told the visitor, and all that he is asked,
will show him that the Mother House really lives
in the Far North also. It comes and goes, and talks
and smiles, writes letters joyfully received, and
dictates those that are sent. It is to the Mother
House that we owe whatever history is extant of
the various foundations in the great Northwest.
Here is a line written from the Red River: "I do
not know how I was able to be so courageous that
morning of the 24th, when we parted. My only
consolation, so far away, is to be still united in
heart with all our Sisters, and to have a share in
their good works."
According as they go further west, and further
north, the Missionary Sisters gather in spirit more
closely around those who remain "at home."
Listen to some of the messages which they sent to
that home, in 1867.
"Sunday, June 30. Dearest Mother, — On Sun-
day especially we think of the Mother House. We
have tents with us. If we could only camp out
some evening near you, and join you at recreation!
Even to think of it does one good. What a lot of
things there would be to tell, after so long a separa-
tion! But never again, in this world, shall we have
that happiness. Still, there is heaven!"
220
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
"July 8. It is the feast day of our dear Sister
Assistant. After a fervent prayer for our beloved
Mother of the far-ofif Missions, we kept our feast
day quite joyously. . . Good-bye, dear Rever-
end Mother, dear Sister Assistant, and dear Sisters
all. We wish you a happy holiday, and we beg of
you a little prayer, at the feet of our Mother Found-
ress, for your Missionary Sisters, who are every day
going further and further away from those they
love so much."
"July 28. The immense and solitary prairies
invite us to reflection. In spirit we are in Mont-
real, united with our beloved Sisters, for whom
this is the day of the monthly retreat."
"August 21. The feast day of our beloved
Mother General. Alas, here to-day we have no
Mass, no Communion! We can only bear in mind
what joyful feasts and happy gatherings there are
in Montreal and St. Boniface, to wish our well-be-
loved Mother a happy feast, and many happy re-
turns of the day. We unite in spirit with all the
dear Sisters who have the happiness to live near
you, dearest Mother, and also with those other Sis-
ters who, like ourselves, are deprived of this pleas-
ure, and, along with them all, we ask the angels to
carry on their azure wings, to the feet of St. Jane
Frances de Chantal, the prayers and good wishes
which we put up to heaven on your behalf. Very
221
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
fervent were oiir prayers on this beautiful feast.
We felt ourselves to be near you, and it vs^as very
sweet to us to think, whilst so far away, that we
shall one day keep your feast in the true homeland.
There, there will be no Northwest, and no separa-
tion; we shall be all together, close to the Immacu-
late Fleart of Mary, the very rendezvous which you
have given us, dearest Mother, by sending us the
beautiful little statue of Our Lady of the Sacred
Heart."
Such communications will enable us to under-
stand what a privation it is for dwellers amid the
Northern snows to be able only at rare intervals to
receive or to send a letter. By the Grey Nuns this
privation is known as fasting from letters. To such
fasting one can never get accustomed. If curiosity
alone were hurt, mortification might make all well
again. But affection feels the deeper wound.
Hence, at certain periods of the year, the horizon
of the lake is eagerly scanned for the possible ap-
pearance of some one bearing messages from afar.
Here is a passage, which is a wail of woe: "No
letter from the Mother House, nor from anyone in
Montreal! Our dear Sister Superior (Sister La-
voie) is only an apprentice in fasting from letters.
She finds it a very heavy penance. It is indeed the
great hardship of the North, to which no length of
time can make us grow indifferent."
222
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
And here is a letter of September, 1907, in
which the Sister Superior at Providence wafts a
sigh from near the Pole to Eastern Canada: ''It
appears that God wishes to add to our privations.
We used to have three posts in the year. Now there
is a new arrangement, by which we are to have one
post in the winter, taking no letters back, and an-
other in July, when navigation is open. So, then,
we can write only once a year, and must wait till
the following year for an answer. We all feel this
privation very much, and I most of all, because 1
have so often to ask advice on various subjects.
The change has been made by the Chief Factor,
who is leaving Simpson, to reside at Fort Smith.
It appears progress is not intended for this part of
the world. I pray Our Lord to teach me how to
wait with patience."
But the circular, which quotes this letter, adds:
"Whilst our dear Sisters were making these
lamentations, the Right Reverend Bishop, Mgr.
Breynat, was in Ottawa, pleading the cause of the
Northern Missions. He was very courteously re-
ceived by the Ministers and the Postmaster-Gen-
eral, and was promised three winter posts for Fort
Resolution, and two for the Arctic Stations. How
thankful we are for this relief!"
If letters from high latitudes were rare, at all
events they were long. They now form volumes in
223
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
prose and in verse. Out of the abundance of the
heart, the pen spoke. In a letter of 1880, from
Fort Providence, were enclosed some pansies
(pensees), grown there, and reaching Montreal
still fresh in perfume and colour. With them was
a beautiful little poem in French, dedicating these
"thoughts," Ics fleurs du souvenir, to the Mother
General (Rev. Mother Deschamps). No doubt a
letter in English would have enclosed a forget-me-
not, for the sake of the same happy play upon
words.
The great feasts, the greatest of all feasts, in the
convents far away, are the visits of the Superiors.
After them, there can remain only the blessed
vision of peace! The Superior's coming is for
years expected and prepared for. For years it
remains a green spot in the soul. The sorrow of
parting gives a nun the measure of the happiness
she has felt in the arms of a Mother who is loving
and loved, sympathizing, and revered. To such a
Superior someone wrote: "Mother dear, I cannot
tell you how we feel since you left us. We are
orphans. The first time we met together on the
verandah, we had not a word to say. We kept look-
ing at the hill opposite, until one of the young Sis-
ters pointed and said, 'There's where she passed,'
and we all burst out crying. Mother, did not that
224
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
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225
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
torrent of tears overtake you? Surely, Madame
Swetchine was right in saying that our passing
gleams of joy make the heart sink into deeper
night. For a fortnight you were with us, loving
and consoling, and petting us. And then you dis-
appeared. . . . The moment calls for your
favourite hymn, J'attends le del: Yes, heaven is
the prize. Adieu, beloved Mother, and hearty
thanks for your visit, which has renewed our fer-
vour, and has made everyone content, and espe-
cially content with you, good Mother."
The Convent at La Providence received the
first visit of the Mother General only in 191 2. Rev-
erend Mother Piche landed there on July 1, that
year. There was a triple feast: the golden jubilee
of the Oblate Mission of Notre Dame de la Provi-
dence, and the silver jubilee in the priesthood of
the devoted Superior, Father Giroux, coincided
with the first visit of the Mother General. We
have in this chapter been considering the sources
of that religious devotedness by which we are so
edified. And we must, in another chapter, examine
the results or fruits of those sacred sources or
springs. We cannot better close the one chapter,
and open up the other, than by transcribing here
the hasty notes that were written in July, 1912, con-
cerning a homely, yet quite religious, celebration.
"All day some of us were on the watch. At
226
THE SOURCES OF DEVQTEDNESS
last, some of the children saw the smoke appearing
round the Point, and shouted, "The Steamboat."
At once the outdoor bell was rung to call the chil-
dren from the woods. In less than half an hour
everyone is at the water side. The weather is splen-
did. A light breeze makes the flags ripple and
swell. The children are all ranged in order, carry-
ing coloured streamers. The Sisters wave white
handkerchiefs to the Sainte Marie, which is now in
view. With a glass we can see two Nuns among
the passengers. Our good Mother, so loved, and so
longed for, is there. All hearts are beating. The
steamer passes quite close to us, and we accompany
it to the landing stage, where all form a semi-circle.
Now we see on board the Bishop, Father Lefebvre,
and four Grey Nuns. The children sing a few
words of welcome, three times repeated, and wave
their little flags. We hasten on board to receive
the Bishop's blessing, and the embrace of our good
Mother, who says 'How far away you are.'* With
*This sense of the immensity and the isolation of the great
North land, so wild and so lone, is common to all travellers,
although it is only in the summertime that they are able to make
acquaintance therewith. In 1917, a Protestant gentleman, an
explorer, who landed at Lake Athabaska from the same boat as
the Mother General of the Grey Nuns, said to one of the Oblate
Fathers : "I nearly broke down when I saw your Nuns run to meet
the Reverend Mother. They seemed to me like persons a long time
marooned on a desert island, and overjoyed to see at last a
human face."
227
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
her we have the pleasure of finding Sister St. An-
gela, Sister MacQuillan, and Sister MacQuirk.
Mgr. Breynat and the Mother General land, and
pass along the ranks. The Mother General, 'doing
at Rome as Rome does,' gives her hand to all the
Indians, who are present in great numbers this
summer.
A procession is formed, the children leading the
way to the Church. There a Laiidate is sung by
the children, whilst all hearts expand in adoration
and thanksgiving. At a signal, the procession is re-
formed. We pass before the Bishop's House,
under a triumphal arch. The Bishop and the Rev-
erend Fathers are there. The children fall into two
lines in front of the Convent, and once more salute
the Mother General and her companions. After a
little while in the community room, Mother Gen-
eral enters the reception hall, where she sees the
figures 50 and 25 on the children's breasts and
decorating the room. The children were arranged
in eight groups, representing the eight different
Missions from which they have come to us. They
sang very joyously a little hymn and chorus, spe-
cially written for the occasion, and explaining the
figures of golden and silver jubilee, the 50 and the
25.
Next comes a little play or dialogue, as fol-
lows: —
228
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
Five little boys, and five little girls, arrive, rather out
of breath.
Joseph. — Here we are at last.
Marie. — Yes, but very tired.
Paul. — Ah, We have had a long way to come!
Julienne. — Let us ask these young ladies what is up ;
they are likely to know what is going on here.
Peter. — It all looks very strange, certainly.
Joseph. — What is the meaning of this Cross, those
figures, flowers and decorations ?
Delphine. — Dear friends, this is indeed a great day
here. Vital, the biggest boy, knows all about it, and he
will tell you if you wish.
Vital. — Yes, and I will tell you with all the more pleas-
ure because I have to tell of kindness received, and because
gratitude is what ought to be deeply imprinted in all our
hearts. There are three things that bring us here to-day,
three great feasts. And each of them is a reason why we
should thank God for all His mercies to our country. I
will tell you the meaning of those shining figures of 50.
Those golden figures mean golden jubilee. Fifty years ago,
the Missionaries, having at their head the Great Priest, as
the patriarch, Beaulieu, used to say, came here and planted
the Cross. They built the first Church, and some huts.
Those good Missionaries were IMgr. Grandin, and Fathers
Gascon and Petitot. Since their coming, the Mission has
prospered, and we see here to-day children from all the
Forts — from Fort Rae, Fort Nelson, and even from the
Arctic Red River. Here we are educated, here we are taught
to know and love God. And all this we owe to the Oblate
Fathers, who for fifty years have been busy in the hard
work which we sometimes impose upon them.
229
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
All.— God bless our Bishop! God bless the Oblate
Fathers !
Anna. — Now I will tell you the meaning of our second
festival here to-day. You may see on the walls of our
Convent some very honoured names, reminders of memor-
able days, showing that great persons have visited us,
though we are on the very edge of the world. But never be-
fore to-day have we seen the beloved Mother of our dear
teachers. Nevertheless, we knew her name very well,
and we were full of joy when the news of her visit found
its way over our rapids, and through our woods. You all
understand what reason we have for our joy.
Tules. — Now it is my turn to speak, and I want to
tell you about that silver number 25. It means silver
jubilee. It means that 25 years ago our good Father
Superior received that Sacrament which gave him the
power to bring Jesus from heaven upon the altar, and to
give us the Holy Communion, which most of us receive
every day since the great privilege was granted us by our
Holy Father, Pope Pius X. You see we have blessings
upon blessings. Never can we repay what we owe to
the devoted Father Sui)erior. All that we can do in
return, is to live good lives, not only here, but when we
return into the woods, among our own people.
Marie. — But some one must explain to us about that
Cross and those flowers.
Leonie. — I know. Wherever the Missionary goes,
he plants a Cross. That is what keeps him brave. As
for the flowers, our Reverend Fathers are the Oblates of
Mary Immaculate. So the Lily, her emblem, may stand
for them, and the Marguerite, or Daisy, may remind us
of the Nuns, our teachers, whose first Mother was called
230
THE SOURCES OF DEVOTEDNESS
Marguerite. The Daisy is also the flower of the Sacred
Heart, and this Convent is the Sacred Heart Hospital.
Anna. — Before we separate, let us sing once more
our joyful song of welcome.
ALL SING?
July 14. High Mass of thanksgiving sung by
the Father Superior. He explains to the people
that the Holy Sacrifice is oiTered in thanksgiving
to God for a great blessing to the Mission, namely,
the visit of this good Mother General, who, in spite
of delicate health, has undertaken all the fatigues
of so long a journey, in order to encourage her
spiritual children who labour with such self-abne-
gation in this place. She was to have gone to
Rome, and to have seen our Holy Father the Pope,
but she gave up that voyage in order to come to
Mackenzie.
*The reader will have noticed that the Nuns, who must
have had something to do with this little dialogue, place the Oblates
in bold relief, remaining themselves in the background. They have
always been teaching the lesson of gratitude to others, and they have
often had naive and touching proofs of the gratitude entertained
in their own regard. On October 18, 1889, the feast day of the
Sister Superior at He a la Crosse, Baptist, a young Indian working
at the Mission, called to pay her his respects, and she asked him
to pray for her. He said he would, and straightway went to ask
the Oblate Fathers for a rosary.
"Have you lost the one I gave you the other day?" he was
asked.
"No," he said, "but much I love the Sister Superior, and I
want to pray for her on both sides of the boat."
Next day, at mass, he was seen with two rosaries : he was
rowing with both hands !
231
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
July 17. Our Right Rev. Bishop announces
that there will be Mass at midnight. We make
use of the word, but we have no night in this coun-
try, at this season. The grown-up girls make a
presentation to the Mother General of a beautiful
pair of moccasins. They had already given her
some other articles worked by themselves, and in
particular a pair of white gloves for Dr. Masson,
with a letter written by Marie-Rose, to thank him
for allowing Mother to come, and for telling her
that the journey would only do her good.
We spend the remaining time with our good
'Mother, feeling very much how quickly it is pass-
ing. At twelve o'clock the Bishop says Mass, and
for Mother General's intentions. All the children
are present, and sing with unusual spirit. After
Mass, we go to the refectory: we are at a last sup-
per. So quickly end all earthly joys! At 3.30
a.m., the partings. In silence and in sorrow, we
accompany Mother General to the Boat. At 4,
the Salute Marie moves off, taking our beloved
Mother away."
232
CHAPTER X.
THE FRUITS
^Bv their fruits you shall know them
>}
The reader who has acompanied us so far has,
no doubt, already said that in half a century such
devoted Nuns must have formed a generation of
civilized and Christian folk in the fastnesses of the
North. Nevertheless, it is worth w^hile to consider
some details. In a garden of the Lord, it is pleas-
ant and profitable to study with care those fruits
which are all for the glory of God, and to which
He alone has given life and increase.
The coming of the Sisters of Charity made a
profound impression on the Indians.
Its first good effect was the revolution in their
ideas concerning women. The pagan women
thought of themselves as nothing but born thralls,
to be sometimes sold or lent or exchanged, and
always despised. The dignity and the holiness of
the "Daughters of Prayer" was a permanent lesson
for them, and still more for the Red Men, who had
been accustomed to treat wife and daughter, mother
and grandmother, with contempt and cruelty. In
those Religious they seemed to see realized what
233
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
had been taught them about the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the most perfect of all creatures, on earth or
in heaven.
The devotedness of the Nuns to the needy and
the sick made also a deep impression. Something
has already been said on that subject, in connection
with the Sacred Heart Hospital. Of the Holy
Angels' Convent at Lake Athabaska, one of the
Sisters wrote in 1914: "We have here a dispensary
open at all hours of the day, and we visit the sick
regularly. Everybody applies to the Sisters, whe-
ther in slight or in serious illness. In fact, Sister
Laverty is not only nurse, but physician, surgeon,
and dentist. The principal persons of the place,
and some outsiders, clubbed together last year, and
bought her a dentist's chair!"
The good work of charity on behalf of the
sick has done a great deal in the Northwest to ban-
ish any prejudice. A Government official said not
long ago: "I feel most grateful to the Grey Nuns
of Mackenzie. On my arrival at Fort Resolution,
I called on them, because my eyes were giving me
great trouble, and the doctor at Edmonton had
done me no good in return for his fee. The Sister,
not asking my religion, and refusing to take any fee,
gave me a remedy which cured me. I feel most
grateful, and I shall be glad of any opportunity to
oblige those good Nuns. I can assure you that the
234
THE FRUITS
existence of such as they are is no slight argument
in favour of the truth of your religion."
Some of the patients tended by the Sisters have
been healed in soul as w^ell as body. A barrister,
going along with many miners to the Klondike
goldfields, was laid up with gout at Fort Simpson.
At great expense, he got himself carried to the
Sacred Heart Hospital at Fort Providence. There
the Nuns took care of him all the winter. He did
not leave before being reconciled with God, after
having neglected his religious duties for twenty
years. He went on to the Klondike, where he died
a good death the following year.
Respect and confidence are shown the Grey
Nuns by all manner of persons — Indians and Euro-
peans, Protestants and Catholics, travellers and the
officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. No sooner
do they appear on the steamers, or in any public
place, than they are surrounded with all manner of
respectful attentions.
But it was first of all for the children that
the Missionary Sisters settled in the Far North. Of
the children, therefore, we must now speak. Those
little Indians found in the Sister of Charity more
than a mother's love. They never saw her dis-
gusted by vermin, rudeness, fickleness or ingrati-
tude. Their misery and ignorance she treated with
235
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
all the tenderness of supernatural affection. Into
their mind, and will, and heart, she endeavoured to
instil something of the Christian spirit.
It was no easy task. There was no precedent to
follow. The advance had to be made through a
tangled and thorny wood, and no one had blazed
the trail. The Sister of Charity was her own
A Lesson in Charity.
pioneer. Method of education — for the children
of the woods — there was none. The Sister of Char-
ity invented her own system, and its success is her
praise. Well she knew that it would be not merely
useless, but mischievous, to try to give a taste for
the town life of the Palefaces to those who are
destined to go back to the wigwam, to travel on
snow shoes, and to use no other implement than the
236
THE FRUITS
fishing net and the gun. She knew and judged
wisely. The Indian hunters and fishermen of to-
day, old pupils of Providence, Resolution, and
Athabaska, "do honour to the Mission," as the com-
mon saying is in the North. They lead good Chris-
tian lives. They were taught in the Convent school
the vanity of pretence, and the dignity of labour;
they learned there that sorrow or pain as well as
joy, may be offered to God on high, that the fol-
lower of Christ carries a Cross; and that what is
of little account in itself may be precious as helping
to sanctify our soul. Of old, the Indian lived his
hard life, as a mere child of Nature. To-day, his
life is just as hard — perhaps harder, for his con-
stitution is less robust, and his hunting-grounds
less well-stocked — but he lives his life under super-
natural influences, as one who has been made a
sharer in the Gospel of God's grace. The Sister of
Charity taught him the meaning of that Gospel
day by day, and detail by detail. She taught him
how the little and the poor might be the dearest
friends of the poor Child of Bethlehem. Her
teachings he now repeats in his own language to
those who had not heard them before. He uses his
natural eloquence in spreading the knowledge of
the Good Word. And, after his Christian life,
when he lies down in his wigwam preparing to go
"bevond the sky," he dies a Christian death, recall-
237
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
ing the Nun's holy lessons for the hallowing of his
last breath. Yes, the Red Indian has been trans-
formed. And his transformation — the glory of the
Christian religion — has been brought about by the
patient perseverance of the Grey Nun and the
Priest.
It is the religious teacher, especially, who has
the consolation of seeing this transformation pro-
ceeding day by day, just as one may watch the
growth of a plant in a fertile soil and clime. In
those fresh and primitive natures, everything is
remarkably interesting. The Indian's senses are
impressionable and keen, to a degree far surpassing
the keenest senses amongst white men. His eye car-
ries to a distance which leaves us surprised, and his
ear catches the slightest sound. He takes in, at a
glance, the appearance of a stranger, or an unfa-
miliar scene. He has a musical ear and voice, and
he loves singing. The children's choirs at Lake
Athabaska and Providence are hardly inferior to
the best boys' choirs anywhere. The Indian's keen
faculties, and his sense of locality, make him very
quick in learning languages. Little fellows of
seven years old are often able to talk French and
English after only a few months in the Convent,
although coming from places where they had never
heard a word of either language.
The question has been asked whether the intel-
238
THE FRUITS
lect, which is first ted by the senses, is also keener
among Indians than among white people. It
would seem that it is not. The Indian appears to
be less capable of abstraction and generalization
than a member of the white race; what is concrete,
real, actual, is what he seizes triumphantly; his
speech, which has an abundance of phrases for
describing the least details of any object once seen,
has no abstract expressions. Nevertheless, we have
read, in English and in French, summaries of a not
too simple discourse, written, without assistance, by
pupils of Athabaska and Mackenzie Convents, and
leaving hardly any room for correction as regarded
plan, developments, wording and spelling.
The Convent schools of the North have been
visited by several Government Inspectors, not
Catholics. The first arrived, without notice, at
Lake Athabaska in 1908. The account of his visit,
written at the time, may be of interest.
"We have had a surprise visit from the Gov-
ernment Inspector of Schools, Mr. Macrae, who
was accompanied by the Bishop, Mgr. Grouard,
and Mr. Harris, the Chief Factor at Fond du Lac.
Everybody was very much excited, but the In-
spector was very kind. He took a great many
notes about everything. He asked very few ques-
tions himself, but requested one of the teachers to
give her class as usual. The examination lasted
239
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
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240
THE FRUITS
from one o'clock till five, without any interruption.
When all was over, the Bishop expressed the hope
that the Inspector would make allowance for all
shortcomings, reminding him that those children,
before coming to the Convent, knew nothing of
schooling, and had never heard a word of either
French or English. The Inspector replied that he
quite understood, but that he would object to the
Bishop's use of the word shortcomings. T assure
you,' he said, 'there will be no such word in my
report. I am greatly pleased with all that I have
seen and heard. Indeed, I do not know how the
Sisters have been able to bring about such good
results. My report will give a great surprise to
everyone, as the examination has been a great sur-
prise to myself.'
"Mr. Macrae, before leaving, told us that he
would be passing through again in a few days. So
we prepared a little seance, at which, along with
Mr. Macrae and his travelling companions, there
were present also Dr. Edwards, five Police Officers,
and several of the trading officers of the Hudson's
Bay Company. We had a little lamp burning be-
fore the Blessed Sacrament, as a petition for God's
blessing on our pupils. Those young Indians
really got through their parts wonderfully well ; so
Mr. Macrae assured us several times. He said that
in his twenty years as Indian Agent or School In-
241
16
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
spector he had witnessed no such successful exhibi-
tion, such creditable school work. He was partic-
ularly struck by the ease with which the children
spoke English, knowing that they are more familiar
with French. He said in a speech to the school that
he did not know they would have such a reception
for him; that he thanked them all very much; and
that he would surprise the gentlemen at Ottawa,
when he showed them the programmes of the
school, and told them what a prosperous establish-
ment existed at Lake Athabaska."
A few months later, Mr. Macrae wrote from
Ottawa to the Convent: "Your Institution is an
oasis in the Northern desert. It is the creation of
your courage, self-abnegation, many virtues, and
much hard work, and in circumstances of great
difficulty. Your wonderful success is beyond all
praise."
We must not forget to mention that in 1883 the
Protestant Chief Trader at Fort Vermilion, on the
Peace River, journeyed 300 miles by canoe, to
leave his children for their education at the Lake
Athabaska Convent.
One of the latest testimonials to the good work
done by the Convents is the following entry in the
Visitors' Book in the Providence Convent. The
writer is the Hon. Frank Oliver, Minister of the
Interior in the Dominion Government: —
242
THE FRUITS
"A noted Mission doing good work. The faith
and enterprise of its founders are justified by the
work of their successors, which is a credit to Can-
ada and Christianity.
June 26, 1910.
(Signed) Frank Oliver.
Notwithstanding what we have said about the
ordinary life of even the educated Indian, it must
be mentioned that there are some pupils of the Grey
Nuns who now occupy posts formerly reserved for
Europeans or Half-Breeds. e.g., as traders, travel-
lers, interpreters, etc. There is one pupil in a
House of Studies, preparing for the priesthood,
and there are others who hope to follow in his
steps.
In order to continue, in some sort, the good
work of the school, when the school days are over,
the Mackenzie Nuns make use of the press. Since
1910, a little lithographed paper appears twice a
year at Providence. It is sent out by each of the
two posts, the winter and the summer. It is called
The Friendly Voice. This little publication is
most interesting. It contains all the news of the
half-year, with reflections grave and gay, jovial and
religious. It is sent to. all the old pupils. If one
of them is reported as not "doing honour to the
243
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Mission," no "Friendly Voice" reaches him, but he
is recommended to the prayers of those who remain
faithful. As a rule, this gentle hint suffices to make
the erring one ashamed of himself, and anxious to
be restored to favour.
It may be worth while to copy here some of the
newsy paragraphs of the Providence paper.
"The 29 little boys attend well to their lessons, and
the 36 girls are not surpassed by anyone in learning and
good conduct. The two bigger girls try to provide ' for
everyone, and to please even little ^larie-Rose, not yet
two years old, who is not always in good humour when
called in the morning."
"At Mass the Bishop was greatly pleased to hear a
very small voice singing, O res mirahilis! mandncat Dom-
inum pauper. It was Marie-Rose, now three years old.
Wonderful indeed, for she understands about Holy
Communion.
"Everybody is hard at work, learning English. They
say that Sister Marie-Anne now dreams in English only.
"Fort Simpson folk, having good taste, like to live at
Fort Providence. That explains why Celine has maried
Joseph. These two good old pupils have our best wishes
and prayers for their happiness.
"On All Saints' Day, Mr. G. was received into the
Church.
"Dear Little Barnaby, the best of children, left us, after
a short illness, to go to Jesus whom he loved very much.
"Poor little Noelia, who was always so lively and gay !
Her father was delighted when he saw her last summer.
But she began to fail, and fade like a flower. She died in
244
TPiE FRUITS
the arms of her aunt, Sister Noeha, on the feast of the
Immaculate Conception. The Blessed Virgin took her
where she can smile and i)la\- joyfully, more than ever now.
"God is good to us in our needs. Two silver foxes
have been taken in I brother Oliviers's traps.
"December 23, 1914. Anniversary of the Venerable
Mother d'Vouville. who intoned the Tc Deiini after seeing
The League of the Sacred Heart. Fort Resolution.
her Hospital burned to the ground. This morning, we and
the orphans, during a Mass of Thanksgiving, sang our
Magnificat in gratitude to God for showing us the beginn-
ings of a fire, which, even a little later, might have been
fatal. 245
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
"Christmas Midnight Mass, so beautiful, for our poor
country. The altar, with its angels, and lights, and hang-
ings, and garlands, looked lovely, and lifted one's thoughts
to heaven. The singing seemed to rival that of the angelic
'Glory to God'. And each one was supremely happy,
receiving our Divine Lord in the Holy Communion.
"The Father Superior tells us the following little story.
For three weeks, in an epidemic fever, little Anastasia
hovered between life and death. She received Holy Via-
ticum. She was well watched night and day. The nursing
of the good Nuns, and the prayers of all, especially of the
child's grandmother — who neither ate nor slept, but said
rosaries continually — snatched Anastasia from death. When
she seemed out of danger, though still weak, I thought
I must tell her the truth myself.
'So, little Anastasia, you are well again, thank God,'
I said.
'Yes, Father,' said she, smiling, 'and I want to play
with the other children.'
'You have been very ill, my dear child, but God has
spared you to us. Do you remember that some of the
others were sick too?
'Oh, I remember. Many were sick : my Sister Teresa,
Marca, Jane, Zenaide, and Anna.
'Well, some of your companions, whom you loved
very much, are suffering no longer: they are gone to
Jesus.'
'Where is Teresa?'
'Teresa is not suffering any longer ; she is very happy.'
*I want her to come and see me, then, at once.'
'She does see you being near Jesus, where her suffering
is at an end.'
246
THE FRUITS
'Did Jesus then come for my sister'? little Anastasia
asked.
I said: 'My dear child, on the eighth of this month,
the day I gave you the Last Sacraments, your sister
went to Jesus, to beg Him to leave you to console your
good father and mother for her death.'
'Oh, my sister is dead,' said poor little Anastasia, burst-
ing into a pitiful passion of tears.
I said: 'I understand, you cannot help crying. But
remember how happy Teresa is, near our blessed Lord,
who will hear her prayers for you, and for your parents.
She will watch over you until you meet and embrace
each other in the heavenly country'."
There is another little magazine, St. Joseph's
Messenger, published at St. Joseph's Hospice, Fort
Resolution, Great Slave Lake, which is by no means
inferior in worth to the elder publication. Their
use of the printed word shows how enlightened and
efficient is the zeal of the Grey Nuns.
It is chiefly with a view to the religious for-
mation of the intelligence and heart of the young
Indian, that those Sisters devote themselves to all
that is included in the one word education — the
various branches of secular knowledge, prepara-
tion for public examinations, and the ''continua-
tion" work through their little magazines. Most
consoling have been the secular and religious fruit
of their patient and persevering labours. It is evi-
247
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
o
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O
V.
a!
C
c
248
THE FRUITS
dent that the Grey Nuns have had the gift of a
special vocation for the work in which they have
been engaged so successfully.
Numberless have been the busy arts employed
for the one good end. But they have all consisted
in a wise adaptation, to persons and places, of the
ordinary means of grace provided by our holy
religion.
The first source of spiritual life brought home
to the Indian was the Holy Eucharist. With what
fervour the children of the woods responded to the
desire of Our Lord and His Church may be learned
from the religious demonstrations which took place
in the most distant Convent of the Canadian Dom-
inion, on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress
at Montreal. The Friendly Voice told something
of the preparations made for the final procession,
saying, "We desired, and we had, a triumphal pro-
cession in honour of our Eucharistic Lord, in union
with the religious festivities at Montreal. The
Nuns were the organizers. Never was there such
a procession at Providence before. I wish you had
been here to see the 300 spruce-trees decorating the
path over which the Blessed Sacrament was carried,
the beautiful canopy, the three fine banners, the
splendid Altar of Repose, guarded by six little boys
dressed as angels, and all the little girls in the "pro-
cession in white, and carrying crowns!",
249
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
It was about this time that Pope Pius X. de-
creed that Holy Communion should be given very
frequently, and even daily, to all who understood
its meaning, and were rightly disposed. The Nuns
explained accurately matters to their pupils, leav-
ing them a free choice. The result was that fre-
quent Communion became general among them,
and daily Communion not uncommon. We have
seen some of these Indian children receiving Holy
Communion, and have been edified and delighted
by their manifest faith and devotion. The sacred
fruits of such faith and devotion are best known to
the Priests and Nuns who watch the spiritual
growth of those youthful souls. We have seen the
considered opinion of Father Le Doussal, the ven-
erable Chaplain of Holy Angels' Convent, who
wrote: "Contrary to what was feared by some, the
surprising Papal Decree has created enthusiastic
love of the Holy Eucharist. And, as a practical
measure, it has done immense good, triumphing
over habits which seemed to require a miracle for
their cure. Through frequent Communion our
children have advanced very much in innocence
and love of God. It is evident that this return to
the primitive discipline of the Church has been of
Divine inspiration."
We know that some of those good Convent
children have come to feel a hunger and thirst after
250
THE FRUITS
Holy Communion, and that nothing would give
them so much pain as to be forbidden to approach
the altar rails.
After Holy Communion, a potent factor in pro-
ducing the happy results, the spiritual fruits, of the
religious education given by the Nuns, is devotion
to the Blessed Virgin. The Missionary Sisters
bring their pupils to Jesus by the hands of Mary.
The Immaculate Mother becomes the guardian of
their purity and their faith. The Nuns have estab-
lished societies of the Children of Mary, affiliated
to the Archconfraternity in Rome, and having all
the advantages of its rules and privileges. The
enrolled Children of Mary always wear the blue
ribbon and medal, the outward sign of their dedica-
tion to our Lady.
On December 8, 1915, the statue of the Immac-
ulate Conception at Lake Athabaska was solemnly
crowned by the Children of Mary, keeping high
festival that day. A very beautiful scene also was
the presentation of crowns to Our Lady by the little
Indian girls, all in white arrayed, at the close of the
retreat preached in 1916 for the Convent inmates
and all the faithful at Fort Providence. It seemed
as if all present would willingly hav^ spent the
whole night at the feet of the Blessed Virgin
Mother!
251
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
In 1916 took place the edifying death of one of
the Children of Mary at St. Joseph's Convent,
Great Slave Lake. Baptistine, when only four
years old, lost her mother. Her father placed her
in the hands of the Nuns at St. Joseph's Convent,
where she made her first Communion on December
6, 1911. She had a great devotion to Our Blessed
I^ady, and she was admitted amongst the Children
of Mary on December 8, 1913. In March, 1916,
her father told her that he would take her away in
July. She was extremely sorry to hear this; she
asked the Blessed Virgin herself to take her, rather
than to let her leave the Convent. She was then in
very good health. In April, at the close of the an-
nual retreat, she wrote down her good resolution,
which she placed at the feet of the statue of Mary
Immaculate. "To live a pure life, so as to please
Our Blessed Lady." Soon after the retreat, her
health began to decline, and her mysterious malady
yielded to no treatment. On July 4, surrounded by
the other Children of Mary, she received Holy
Viaticum, and joyously offered to God the sacrifice
of her young life. On July 13, she received Holy
Communion for the last time, and the same day she
expired in the Sister Superior's arms, whilst in-
voking Mary, and kissing the missionary cross of
Father Duport. ,
252
THE FRUITS
And now we will ask our readers to leave for a
short while the Northern Denes, and to return
to those western wilds, of which we have said
something in our second chapter. We cannot
bring ourselves to omit telling the edifying tale wc
have heard of a little orphan of the Sauteux tribe,
in those western hunting grounds, where the Grey
Nuns, for three quarters of a century, have been
training children for Heaven. In that particular
sphere of labour, the Nuns have had to contend
with the indifference, the obstinacy, and pride of a
fierce pagan race. Yet in the tribe of the Sauteux,
as in a field desolated by heathen brutality, Mary
Immaculate, by the hands of the Sisters of Char-
ity, gathered to her bosom a little flower of rare
beauty. This little Sauteux girl was sent to the
Convent by her father, to be taught how to read and
write. But the father gave strict orders that she
was not to be baptized. Having fallen ill, she was
taken back to her tribe. Father Magnan, O.M.I.,
in a letter to the Society of the Holy Childhood,
tells the rest of her storv: "In the Convent she had
heard the religious instructions and the prayers.
The Hail Mary had made a deep impression upon
her young mind. As she lay ill, in the Indian Re-
serve, she sent for an old woman, a Christian, and a
near relation, and begged her to say that prayer in
which the Holy Mother of God is asked to pray
253
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
for us in the hour of our death. The woman not
only said the prayer, but she baptized the child,
who was in immediate danger of death, and re-
mained with her until the end. Just before her
death she asked for her father, and begged him to
give up his superstitions, and to embrace the
Religion to which she now belonged by Baptism,
and which, as she assured him, would bring him
safely to heaven. Then she turned to her Catholic
relation, asking her to repeat the prayer to Holy
Mary. After the last invocation, the little girl
said: "What a beautiful prayer! Father, be con-
verted to the Catholic Religion, and come with me
to heaven," and she expired. The father sobbed,
but said nothing. For a long time there seemed
to be no change in him. But the grace of God
had made its way into hi? heart, and was bearing
fruit. A year after his little daughter's death,
he himself entered upon his last illness. He
sent for the Priest, who was then with the Indians
of another reserve fifteen miles away. To him he
told all about his child, and her last words to him,
and he begged the Priest to instruct and baptize
him also, and to open to him the gates of heaven.
So his daughter's time in the Convent had not been
in vain."
Let us return now to our Northern Denes. We
254
THE FRUITS
have already said something about the Convent
girl-pupils, and their piety. The boys, on their
part, are enrolled as the Guard of Honour of the
Sacred Heart. Proudly they carry their Banner of
the Sacred Heart, and wear the medal and badge.
And great care do they take to be counted worthy
of admission into the Guard.
St. Joseph's Convent in 1914 began to contri-
bute, as we may say, to a special "Treasury of the
Sacred Heart." Into a little box, at the foot of St.
Joseph's statue in the corridor, the inmates of the
house (both Nuns and pupils) slip now and then
a little unsigned mention of some act of virtue,
which has been inspired by love of the Sacred
Heart. On the first Friday of the month, these are
taken out and counted, the numbers being entered
in a special register, which is surely copied by
some recording angel. The gathered slips of paper
are left before the altar during Mass, and remain
all day near the Blessed Sacrament, until they make
a sort of holocaust after Benediction. The register
shows that between December, 1914, and May,
1915, there were 37,719 Acts of mortification.
The 1895 volume of the Annals of the Oblates
of Mary Immaculate contains a description of
"Christmas Night at the North Pole," written by
Father Lecorre, who was for many long years
Chaplain to the Grey Nuns in the Far North. He
255
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
paints a beautiful picture of that midnight, so dear
to Indians, with its starry skies and its flashes of
the Northern Lights. He tells how from out the
depths of all the forests come the Indians, their
sleigh-bells making music in the frosty air. They
assemble in great numbers for the Midnight Mass
at the Crib side, rendering the Divine Child the
homage of hearts regenerated by grace, and seem-
ing to delight in such thoughts as made St. Bernard
vary the words of the Psalmist, and say Pafvus
Dominiis et amahilis nimis! The scene described
by Fr. Lecorre has been often seen at Providence
Mission, where it is the custom of the Nuns to bring
forward their First Communicants in the front
row of those who are invited by Adeste, Fideles,
and who salute the happy night and morn of the
Nativity with a renewed Gloria in excelsis Deo.
One passage from Fr. Lecorre's article we must
quote here, for it may be said to give the sum and
substance of this book about the Grey Nuns and
their work in the North. "After the Indians and
Half-Breeds, I will tell you of the flower of the
flock, growing up under the Divine influence of
the Sacred Heart. They are our children of the
Sacred Heart Orphanage, so admirably managed
by the devoted Sisters of Charity. They are nearly
all orphans, belonging to the various Indian tribes
— Montagnais, Yellow-Knife, Slave, Flat-Dog-
256
THE FRUITS
Rib, Hareskin, Sekanais, and Loucheux. To see
them at Christmas, in their gay attire, and with
their smiling innocent faces, forming as it were a
Guard of Honour round their Divine Brother of
Bethlehem, and singing their beautiful hymns, no
one could ever imagine what they were like when
first brought to the good Nuns. We Missionaries
have seen Indian and Eskimo children in the wig-
wams of the Northern forests and steppes, and on
the shores of the frozen sea; we know their de-
graded condition, physical and moral; and we
bless God daily for the marvellous transformation
wrought, at the cost of many sacrifices, by the per-
severing care, the greater than motherly care, of
our wonderful Grey Nuns. Surely the Sisters of
Charity are the special creation of Him who im-
posed hands upon little children, saying, "Suffer
them to come unto me."
In the five Convents which the Sisters of Char-
ity have established in the North in order to bring
children to Christ, there have been innumerable
and charming instances of the piety and simplicity
of the Indian children. Perhaps some industrious
hand will one day gather together a selection of
such touching examples, and present them to the
world as a true odour of sweetness. A very few of
these examples have cropped up here and there, in
257
17
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
the course of these pages. Before we conclude, let
three or four more be culled, as some small token
of our grateful admiration for those devout women
not a few, who have laboured with us in spreading
the Gospel of Christ.
Louis
In St. Joseph's Convent, for the last seven years,
lives little Louis of the Dog-Rib tribe. All who
know him — pupils, Priests and Nuns — look upon
him as a really pious child. When he first came he
seemed strong. But tuberculosis of the bones be-
258
THE FRUITS
gan to appear. Gradually he became deformed,
and covered with sores. He could not walk with-
out crutches, and after a time he was so paralyzed
that he had to be carried in a chair. He now suf-
fers a great deal, but he never complains. During
the dressing of his sores, he perspires, and the tears
flow from his eyes, but with his lips he tries to
smile. One day the Father Superior told him he
had seen in one of the huts a little boy who had the
same disease. "Oh," said poor Louis, "he must be
suffering a great deal." This was the only mention
of his own sufferings which ever escaped him. He
always unites his sufferings with those of our
Blessed Lord, and he loves to hear about the Pas-
sion. It is his constant desire to do the will of God
in all things, like Him who suffered for us. Daily
Communion is his great happiness, and seems to
transfigure him. Being very intelligent, and know-
ing very well Montagnais, French, and English, he
teaches the Catechism in these languages to the
newcomers, and his clear explanations have often
made older instructors say, "Out of the mouth of
children Thou hast perfected praise." Louis, with
ease, repeats, and explains for the others, the ser-
mons of Father Falaize. The other children have
a real veneration for him, without his noticing it.
There was another Montagnais pupil of the
259
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Nuns, who was called Peter. He died at the Holy
Angels' Convent in 1913. All who knew him felt
more inclined to ask his intercession, than to pray
for him. In 1909, whilst still with his own family,
he had a serious illness. His parents made a vow
to give him to the Oblate Fathers, if he recovered.
He got better so quickly that his recovery was
thought miraculous. As a pupil of the Convent,
he was a model of piety and obedience. But Peter
fell ill again. One day he said, "If I recover, I
shall become a religious, an Oblate of Mary Im-
maculate." One of his young companions asked
him. "Would you rather die, or become an
Oblate?"
"It would be better to die," said Peter, "because
even as a religious I might offend God."
On another occasion, the Sister Infirmarian en-
couraged him to take a very bitter medicine. He
drained it to the dregs, and said, "It is not as bitter
as what our Blessed Lord ha,d when on the Cross."
Peter asked one of the Sisters if the soul in
Purgatory could see God.
"No, my child," was the answer; "we see God
in the moment of judgment, and then no more
until we get into heaven."
"Well," said Peter, "I would rather not go to
Purgatory: I prefer to suffer longer upon earth,
so as to go straight to heaven."
260
THE FRUITS
The poor child's prayer seems to have been
heard, for he did suffer a great deal. In his agony
he appeared as if some terrible vision were before
him. Then he became calm and joyful, and passed
away in perfect peace.
Here now is another example of an Indian
child's holy death :
The Sister Superior at Providence writes : "Our
little Julia looked so beautiful in her coffin. She
had a smile upon her face. She has been laid at
the feet of the Blessed Virgin, the good Mother
whom she loved so much. Many a time she has
spent hours before Our Lady's altar, even during
her long illness. How many edifying examples
she has left her companions! She never com-
plained; she was never melancholy. She was very
charitable too. Every night she said a prayer to
her Guardian Angel, asking him to remain about
her bed. At the head of her bed she wrote with her
own hand, 'Frequent Communion is our novice-
ship for heaven.' "
At this very moment, in the Convent at Lake
Athabaska, it is impossible not to recognize the
working of God's grace in a marvellous attraction
towards the Blessed Eucharist found in a very
young child of the Cree tribe. This little Chris-
261
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
tina is perhaps more precocious than "Little Nellie
of Holy God." Her first distinct word was
"Jesus." Christina made her First Communion on
December 8, 1915, at the age of two years and
eleven months. Even half a year earlier, she quite
understood the meaning of Holy Communion, and
she knew perfectly well the essential parts of the
catechism, as we ourselves had occasion to discover.
In the second Christmastide of her life, Chris-
tina was exactly two years old. Her teacher told
her all about the Crib, the Shepherds, the Wise
Men, the lights and decorations round about the
Child in the Manger. She was not so interested as
the teacher expected. She went* to say her prayers
before the Tabernacle. One of the Sisters said to
her one day, "I never see you paying a visit to the
beautiful Crib. All the other little girls go there
to see the Infant Jesus."
Christina replied: "There, Infant Jesus not
alive. Here, in little house, He is alive, and me
can speak to Him."
She was not happy until she was allowed to get
up in time for Mass. At Benediction, she usually
fixed her eyes upon the Blessed Sacrament, and
prayed well. One evening, however, she forgot
herself and prattled a while. The Sister Superior,
to humiliate her, said aloud in the recreation room,
"Christina has not been good at all. She is not to
262
THE FRUITS
go to Mass or Benediction any more. She will
have to stay in bed." Christina said nothing, but
the tears came into her eyes. A few minutes later,
little knuckles were knocking at the door of the
community room. Christina had come to beg par-
• Christina
don. "Will be good little girl," she said. "Want
you to take me again to Mass."
One afternoon the child was found crying, hav-
ing been accidentally left by herself. The Sister
who found her asked what was the matter. She
answered, "Me all alone."
263
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
"Oh, no, my child," said the Nun, "Jesus, our
Lord, is always with you: He is everywhere."
This was enough to dry Christina's tears.
A day or two later, she happened to meet the
same Sister, of whom she asked, "Sister, you all
alone?"
"Yes," said the Nun.
"No," said the little one; "the Infant Jesus is
with you; He is everywhere; and He came there
in your heart in Mass. I love Jesus too."
Christina had often made her way to the altar
rails with the other children, before there was time
to stop her. But the Celebrant would pass her
by. At last the longed-for day came, and on the
feast of the Immaculate Conception 1915, this little
innocent also received the Blessed Sacrament.
Before her First Communion, this little one,
when she thought no one saw her, used to go to the
altar rails, and draw out the Communion cloth
between the rails, for she was too small to be able
to lift it over the top. Then she would say, holding'
it under her face, "Give me Jesus." It is remark-
able that since her First Communion she has never
done this.
The only thing that troubles Christina now is
being allowed to remain asleep in the morning.
As she is a delicate child, the Nuns do not always
call her early. But she is sure to say. "Sister, why
264
THE FRUITS
did you not call me? Will not the little Jesus
come into my heart to-day?"
Will this little angel be long for this world? It
seems doubtful. If she should early be found ripe
for heaven, Pope Pius X., the children's friend,
will welcome her, and he will smile with blessing
on the Sisters of Charity of the Far North, who
bring to Jesus God's little children of the woods.
265
EPILOGUE
Fifty years have come and gone! During that
half century, some apostolic souls, as poor in
earthly resources as the Galilean missionaries them-
selves, have been spreading the light of the Gos-
pel, and winning souls to Christ, in the immense
pagan desert of Athabaska-Mackenzie, a very wild
and lone land, hardly known to the civilized world.
The pioneers have sown in sorrow; the newer com-
ers have reaped, though not without tears. Pre-
senting their sheaves to the Lord of the Harvest,
all have been able to say, "The Poor have the Gos-
pel preached to them."
Among those labourers of the half-century, the
Grey Sisters occupy a large place. We have al-
ready mentioned the names of the strong and vali-
ant women of 1 867. Their names come to the point
of our pen once more, at the close of our little
review of their lives of devotion and self-sacrifice.
Four of them have gone to their eternal rest and
reward. Two have kept their Golden Jubilee
here below.
Sister Michon and Sister Brunelle never again
saw the Mother House, from which they parted in
1867.
Sister Michon died in the Sacred Heart Hospi-
266
EPILOGUE
tal, at Providence, on October 23, 1896, after
twenty-nine years of labour in that Mission. She
had prayed that she might not be recalled to Mont-
real, because she preferred to die amidst her poor
Indians. Her death was as calm and as peaceful
as her life. ''Not a moment of agony; not a strug-
gle; she just sank to rest, a blessed content upon her
face. The last survivor at Providence of those who
founded the Hospital there, she fell, as we may
truly say, on the field of honour, having never lost
the spirit of perfect obedience, and of absolute con-
formity to the Holy Will of God, and having left
the odour of her religious virtues as an inheritance
very precious to the community which she loved."
Sister Brunelle died on December 10, 1908, at
Lake Athabaska, after twenty-six years of mission
work at Providence, and fifteen in the Convent of
the Holy Angels. She had suffered from cancer,
and had suffered with most edifying patience.
After her death, the following words told how
much she was missed: "Everything looks sad to-
day. The community room is like a desert; one's
heart sinks on going in : she who was so usually seen
there is gone. Two weeks ago she sat there at her
work-table. Some of her books are still in the
press : she was very clever in binding. Some of her
artificial flowers are unfinished: she was wonder-
fully skilful in making them. And what a lot of
267
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
time she managed to give to mending! This was
her most usual occupation. She was always most
exact, even in the least things, and never wasted a
moment. With her, everything was foreseen and
fore-arranged. In a word, she was for us all a
model of the perfect religious. As she had charge
of the Sacristy and the Chapel, she had much op-
portunity for her private devotions. I seem still to
sec her in adoration at the foot of the altar."
Sister Michon rests at Notre Dame de la Provi-
dence, and Sister Brunelle at Lake Athabaska, in
the midst of their pupils who went before or after
them into heaven. Over their graves their Sisters
often pray, taking fresh courage, and growing more
and more attached to their holy vocation. Out of
some tombs hearts may spring into newness of life.
Sister St. Michael, on November 23, 1909, and
Sister Lapointe, on January 6, 1911, were laid to
rest in Montreal, near their beloved Foundress.
Yet it would have been their own wish to die in
their far-off Mission, amongst the little ones of
Christ. Their recall to other posts after, in the one
case twenty, in the other fifteen, years, added the
merit of a new sacrifice to that of a desire which
was already self-sacrificing.
Sister Domithilda Letendre still, joyously and
courageously, serves God in His poor at St. Albert;
in Alberta. The Franciscan Tertiaries in Mont-
268
EPILOGUE
Sister Domithilda (1919).
In 1867, being then only a member of the Third
Order of St. Francis, she accompanied the group
of Foundresses of The Sacred-Heart Hospital,
to Fort Providence.
269
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
real had been for some time assistants of the Grey
Nuns before she, as one of those Tertiaries, accom-
panied those who made the great foundation of
1S67. In 1889, the Mother General, Rev. Mother
Filiatrault, summoned an extraordinary General
Chapter, to debate, and to decide, the making of
the Association of "Little Coadjutor Sisters" an
integral part of the Religious Congregation of the
Sisters of Charity of Montreal. The union has
brought special blessings upon the works of the
venerated Mother d'Youville.
"Little" these new Sisters are, through their
modesty, humility, love of the hidden life, which
make them worthy daughters of the Venerable
Foundress.
"Coadjutors" they are too, and most efficient co-
adjutors, especially in the Far North.
"Sisters" they are also, by their consecration to
God in religion, by their habit, by the Cross which
they wear, and above all, by their faithful follow-
ing of the charge given to all her children by
Mother d'Youville, "Take care that the most per-
fect union may always reign amongst you."
We have been led to say all these things through
mentioning the name of that devoted Coadjutor,
Sister Domithilda.
Now there remains another name, the name of
270
EPILOGUE
Rev. Mother Ward (1919).
The sole survivor of the five Sisters, Foundresses of
the Sacred Heart Hospital at Fort Providence,
Mackenzie, in 1867.
271
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
another survivor of the 1867 group. One of the
Twelve Apostles was left long on earth, to bear
witness of what he had seen, and heard, and han-
dled, until the Church was well established. Of
one of the Foundresses of the Missions in the Far
North, it would seem as if Our Lord had said, "I
will have her to remain until all the tribes to whom
I have sent my apostles have been gathered in."
And this religious may justly say, like the Beloved
Disciple, "I give testimony of what I have seen,
and my testimony is true." Good and venerated
Mother Ward is the Saint John of the first Nuns
of the Far North. To her poor Indians at Fort
Providence she gave twenty-five years of the flower
of her youth. To them also, as well as to all the
poor clients of the Sisters of Charity, she has given
twenty-five other years, for as mistress of novices,
iVssistant of the Mother General, Superior of the
Community in charge of the General Hospital of
Montreal, and IMother Provincial, she has, by word
and example, helped to form a host of other Mis-
sionary Sisters, for whom her memory and her
heart have been an open book, in which they have
read the lessons of the apostolic times.
May she rejoice in the Lord always over the
great things which it has pleased God to work by
her hands, and may she live for many years yet
beside the chief Mother of our Missionary Sisters.
272
EPILOGUE
We do not forget that Mother Ward wrote so long
ago as 1885: "Our fish is very good, and we eat
it with such an appetite that we are in danger of
dying of old age."
When Mother Ward in 1906 went to visit and
encourage her successors in the Mackenzie country,
great was the rejoicing on the part of her old pupils
at Fort Providence, who came in crowds to meet
her. The little children too came very eagerly to
see and to speak to their "Grandmamma," the
Mother of their own Mothers. To her it was a
great consolation to witness such evidences of
gratitude and of a truly Christian spirit. But a
still greater consolation was it to perceive in the
Community the same devotedness and self-denial
as in the early days, and to be able to adopt as her
own the words of the Mother General in 1898:
"Everywhere I have found the same zeal in teach-
ing the children to know, love, and bless God; the
same charity in regard of the orphans, the aged,
and the neglected; the same devotedness and self-
abnegation in regard of the sick; the same gener-
osity in accepting the many sacrifices imposed by
the remoteness and isolation of the places in which
obedience requires those dear Sisters to carry on
their apostolate of charity and love. In a word, I
have everywhere recognized the Hall-mark of the
true work of our holy Foundress."
273
18
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Is it possible that there can be higher praise
than this? Well, yes; we know of even higher
praise, and it is our duty to make it known to others.
In 1898, in an audience of Pope Leo XIII. , Bishop
Grouard was giving an account of his Vicariate.
He was asked the number of the missionaries, and
he told the number of the Fathers and Brothers.
And then he added: "Holy Father, we have Nuns
also : they teach and train the children." The Pope
asked, "What country do they come from?"
"They are Canadians, Your Holiness," said the
Bishop; "they come to us from Montreal, and be-
long to the Congregation of the Grey Nuns, who
have had two communities in my Vicariate for a
long time past. Lately, the Sisters of Providence
also have come to us, and they too come from
Montreal."
"How are they able to live in such a country?"
the Pope inquired; "and how are they affected by
the climate"?
The Missionary Bishop had to declare that in-
deed their sufferings were great, and their priva-
tions such as would be incredible in a civilized
country, and that one of them (it was Sister Gali-
peau) had just died in the neighbourhood of the
Mackenzie River.
The Pope, after listening earnestly, lifted up his
hands and eyes, as if appealing to heaven, and said:
274
EPILOGUE
"They are really sacrificing their lives for God and
His Cjiurch."
No one has been better acquainted with the
Grey Nuns than the Oblate Bishop who heard that
mighty eulogy. It was he who welcomed Mother
d'Youville's daughters to the Far North, who was
their first spiritual Father there, and who shared
their sufferings and their joys. We will therefore
close this book with the words which he wrote,
not long ago, in reply to a letter of congratulation
sent from Montreal, on a certain anniversary.
"Dear Reverend Mother, —
I am most grateful for all your kind wishes for
myself and for our Missions. I thank you partic-
ularly for the prayers which you and your Com-
munity are good enough to of¥er to God in our
behalf. At all times, indeed, we are in need of
God's grace, but never have I more felt the need
of it than at present, when I have been afflicted by
blow after blow. Three of our excellent Brothers
have been drowned, our steam saw-mill has been
destroyed by fire, and there have been other trials
too numerous to mention.
But I must tell you that in the midst of all this
your spiritual children give me great consolation.
They are good religious, faithful in the fulfilment
of every duty. Their good works are admirably
successful. May you live to see the number of
275
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
your Sisters of Charity greatly multiplied, and all
the newcomers walking in the footsteps of their
precursors."
t E. GROUARD, o.m.l.
Bishop of Thora,
Vicar Apostolic of Athabaska.
276
APPENDIX
THE MAIN WORKS HELD PRESENTLY, BOTH IN
CANADA AND UNITED STATES, BY THE FIVE
GREAT FAMILIES OF THE GREY NUNS
FOUNDED BY THE VENERABLE
MOTHER D'YOUVILLE.
I. — The Grey Nuns oe Montreal. — The Sisters
of Charity of the General Hospital
of Montreal.
List of the Sisters, who have been missionaries
in the Far North, (Mackenzie Province),
from 1867 to 1919:
Choir Sisters: — Srs. Lapointe, Ward, Saint-Michael,
Michon, Brunelle, Daigle, Gauthier, Brochu, Fournier,
Lemay, Masse, Ste.-Angele, Boisvert, Saint-Charles, St.-
Pierre, Columbine, Beaudin, Martin, Seguin, Galipeau,
Doucet, Pigeon, Jobin, McDougal, de Lorimier, St.-
Elzear, Genereux, St.-Gregoire, Delorme, Grandin,
Leveille, Boursier, Pinsonnault, Dufault, McQuillan,
Lachance, St.-Omer, Ste.-Albine, Ste.-Victorine, Davy,
Laverty, Girouard, Lavoie, McGuirck, St.-Vincent de
Paul, St.-Cyr, Beaudry, Fortin, Verdon, Gadbois, Ste.-
Eugenie, Latremouille, Olivier, Ste.-Rose de Lima,
Rouleau, Gilbert, Lemaire, Ste.-Dosithee, Nicol, Lusignan.
Little Coadjutor Sisters: — Srs. Marie Domithilda, Yves,
Eustache, Rogatien, Donatien, Denise, Didace, Honorine,
Ernestine, Firmin, Pulcherie, Bruno, Julienne, Dane,
Evariste, Xaverine, Sylvain, Cecilia, Noelia, Florestine,
Damase, Zenon.
277
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
Institutions of the Grey Nuns of Montreal:
Diocese of Montreal-'
1. — hi the City of Montreal: — The mother-house — the
Creche, or nursery — four hospitals — four homes for old
men and women — three day nurseries — the Nazareth
blind asylum — five orphanages — two patronages for
young girls (d'Youville and Killarney) — three hospices
for the aged and infirm — a school for training in house-
hold work.
2. — Outside of the City of Montreal: — An orphanage at
Notre-Dame de Liesse — a farm at St.-Laurent — a hos-
pital at St.-Jean — a school and a home at St.-Benoit —
three homes at Varennes, Chambly and Longueil.
Diocese of Valley field : — A school, at Chateauguay — a
home for the aged orphans, at Beauharnois.
Diocese of Mont-Laurier: — A sanitorium, at Ste.-Agathe
des Monts.
Diocese of St. -Boniface: — A provincial house, a novitiate,
an orphanage, a home, and two hospitals, at St.-Boniface
— three schools, namely at Ste.-Anne des Clienes, at La
Broquerie, at St.-Norbert — Indian boarding schools, at
Kenora, and at Fort-Francis.
Diocese of Winnipeg: — A boys' orphanage at Winnipeg —
schools, at St. -Vital, and St.-Francois-Xavier.
Diocese of Regina :- — Indian Industrial School, at Lebret —
Indian boarding school, at Lestock — hospital and training
school for nurses at Regina.
Diocese of Edmonton: — At St.-Albert: parochial school,
orphanage, farm, and care of the poor and sick ; Indian
boarding school for boys and girls : Indian Industrial
School for boys — Boarding School for white children. —
278
APPENDIX
At Edmonton : hospital, with training school for nurses.
— At Saddle Lake : Indian boarding school.
Diocese of Calgary : — At Calgary : hospital, with training
school for nurses — At Dunbow : Indian Industrial and
boarding school.
Diocese of Prince Albert : — At Saskatoon : hospital with
training school for nurses.
Vicariate Apostolic of Keewatin : — Indian boarding schools,
at Lac La Plonge, and He a La Crosse.
Vicariate Apostolic of Mackenzie : — At Fort Providence,
and likewise at Fort Resolution, Fort Smith, and Fort
Simpson, in each case, Indian boarding school, home and
hospital for the aged, care of the sick in their homes,
and care of the public church.
Vicariate Apostolic of Athabaska: — At Lake Athabaska,
the same good works as in the Mackenzie vicariate.
Diocese of Toledo ( United States) : — At Toledo : orphan-
age, hospital, and training school for nurses.
Diocese of Boston (U.S.A.): — At Cambridge: hospice for
incurables — At Lawrence : orphanage, home for the aged,
and care of the sick — At Boston : patronage for young
girls.
Diocese of Springfield (U.S.A.): — At Worcester: orphan-
age.
Diocese of Manchester (U.S.A.) : — At Nashua: orphanage,
and also hospital with training school for nurses.
Diocese of Trenton (U.S.A.) : — At New Brunswick: hospi-
tal with training school for nurses.
Diocese of Fargo (U.S.A.): — At Fort Totten : Indian
boarding school.
279
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
II. — The Grey Nuns of Ottawa. — Sisters of
Charity called Grey Nuns of the Cross.
Their Institutions :
Diocese of Ottawa:
1. — In the city of Ottawa: — Mother-house and novi-
tiate — twenty- four parochial schools — general hospi-
tal — two homes — two orphanages — Sacred Heart
boarding school, being an academy affiliated to Ottawa
University for Alatriculation examinations.
2. — Outside of the city of Ottawa : — Parochial schools,
at Embrun, Youville Farm, Casselman, L'Orignal,
Bourget, Rockland, Hawkesbury, Clarence Creek,
South Indian, Hull (three), Wrightville, Gatineau,
Aylmer, Monte-Bello. Buckingham — house of refuge
for the Aged, at L'Orignal. — Boarding schools, at
Aylmer and Monte-Bello. — Normal school, at Hull. —
hospital, at Buckingham.
Diocese of Mont-Laurier: — Parochial school and hospital,
at Maniwaki.
Diocese of Temisamingues : — Parochial school, boarding-
school and hospital, at Ville-Marie.
Diocese of Nicolet :— Boarding-school, at St.-Francois
du Lac.
Diocese of Three-Rivers: — Parochial schools, at Pointe
du Lac, and Shawinigan Falls.
Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie : — Parochial schools, at
Chelmsford, Verner and Sudbury — hospitals, at Sudbury
and Sault Ste.-Marie.
Diocese of Pembroke: — At Pembroke: parochial school,
boarding-school and hospital — At Mattawa : parochial
school and hospital^ At Eganville: parochial school.
282
APPENDIX
Diocese of Boston (U.S.A.) : — Three parochial schools, at
Lowell. — parochial school at Haverhill.
Diocese of Buffalo : — Holy Angels' Academy, parochial
school and d'Youville college, which gives courses for
degrees in Arts, Science, Philosophy, Music and Pedagogy.
Diocese of Ogdenshiirg (U.S.A.) : — At Ogdensburg: paro-
chial school of Holy Cross, Sacred Heart Academy, or-
phanage and home for the aged, two hospitals.
Among the Indian missions, the Grey Nuns of Ottawa
have two Institutions:
1. — At Odanak — Mission of the Abenakis (near Pierre-
ville, diocese of Nicolet). In 1886, they opened a
school, and in 1902, they established themselves
definitely on the reserve, with Srs. Woods, Marie-
Joseph, Jeanne-Frangoise and Agnes.
2. — At Albany — (James' Bay) — Holy Angels' orphanage,
founded, in 1902, by Sisters Ste.-Martine, Ste.-Felix
de Valois, Ste.-Jules, and Ste.-Perpetue, in behalf of
an Indian tribe of the great Algonquin race.
This Mission of the Grey Nuns of Ottawa was ex-
ceedingly hard and difficult. The Sisters however
displayed a devotedness which could scarcely be sur-
passed. They conferred untold blessings on the poor
helpless children scattered over this desolate coast,
and one which is ever exposed to the biting winds
of the frozen North.
We ought also to mention that som.e of the first
Grey Nuns of Ottawa came to Red River (St.-Boni-
283
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NORTH
face) in the early days, and that they rivalled both
in merit and courage their sister companions of
Montreal,
III. — The Grey Nuns of Quebec. — Sisters of
Charity of Quebec.
Their Institutions :
Diocese of Quebec :
1. — In the city of Quebec : — Twenty houses, of which :
the mother-house with novitiate — -four hospitals —
three homes for the aged — three orphanages — two
academies — five schools — a boarding-school — a kinder-
garten — Cap Rouge convent — Mastai sanatorium.
2. — Outside of the city of Quebec : — Twenty-two houses,
of which : nine academies : Deschambault, Plessisville,
St.-Ansclme, St.-Nicholas, St.-Charles, St.-Alexander,
Cap St.-Ignatius, St.-Alphonsus Thetford — a home
and an academy at Levis, Ste.-Anne Lapocatiere,
and St.-Andrew ; convent, asylum and hospital, at St.-
Ferdinand of Halifax; academy and hospital, at St.-
Joseph Beauce ; home for the aged and orphans,
at St.-Thomas Montmagny ; convent at St.-Vital
of Lambton ; convent and home, both, at St.-John
Deschaillons, and at St.-Edward of Lotbiniere ; con-
vent at St.-Raymond ; convent and hospital, at St.-
]Maurice of Thetford ; home for the aged, at
Beauceville.
Diocese of Riniouski : — Convent and home, at Rimouski ;
convent, both at Carleton and Cacouna,
Diocese of Chicoutimi: — Murrav Bav convent.
284'
APPENDIX
Diocese of Charloffetozvn (F.B.I.) : — Hospital and orphan-
age, at Charlottetown.
Diocese of Fall-River (L^.S.A.) : — Orphanage, at Fall-
River, Mass. ; young girls' home, at New Bedford,
Mass.
Diocese of Boston (U.S.A.) : — Orphanage, at Lowell,
Mass.
Vicariate Apostolic of the Gulf of St.-Laivrence: —
Esquimaux Point convent.
IV. — The Grey Nuns of St.-Hyacinthe. — Sisters
of Charity of the Hotel-Dieu of St.-Hyacinthe.
Their Institutions:
Diocese of St.-Hyacinthe:
1. — In the city of St.-Hyacinthe: — The mother-house,
home, orphanage, St.-Genevieve's house of Industry,
St.-Joseph's matary, St.-Charles' hospital, Youville's
home, the Hotel-Dieu.
2. — Outside of the city of St.-Hyacinthe : — At Sorel,
general hospital, orphanage and asylum ; At Marie-
ville, home of the Holy cross ; At St.-Denis-sur-
Richelieu, St.-Louis' home ; At Farnham, St.-Eliza-
beth's home.
Diocese of Sherbrooke: — Sacred Heart and St.-Elizabeth's
homes — general hospital also, at Sherbrooke.
Diocese of Fortland (U.S.A.) : — At Lewiston (Maine)
general hospital and Healy asylum.
Diocese of Manchester (U.S.A.): — At Manchester, N.H.,
Notre-Dame hospital and St.-Peter's orphanage ; At
Berlin, N.H., St.-Louis hospital.
. 285
THE GREY NUNS IN THE FAR NOR TH
Diocese of Providence (U.S.A.) : — St. -Charles' orphanage,
at Rochester, N.H. ; St.-Anthony's Home,, at Woonsocket,
R.I.
Vicariate Apostolic of Keczvatin: — St.-Anthony's hospital,
founded at L,e Pas, April, 1912, by Sisters Peltier, Senay,
St.-Leon, and St.-Jean de-Dieu; orphanage and school
for Indians.
V. — The: Grey Nuns of Nicolet. — Sisters of
Charity of the Hotel-Dieu of Nicolet.
Their Institutions:
Diocese of Nicolet :
1- — In the city of Nicolet: — The mother-house, which,
as all the other mother-houses of the Grey Nuns do,
embraces all the works of mercy, both corporal and
spiritual, towards the poor and needy, crippled or sick,
from the aged to young children, orphans and aban-
doned ; visits to the sick and poor outside and domicil-
iary night watches ; a home for priests, sick or retired
from the Holy ministry, and a department for lady
boarders ; St. -Joseph's Farm, — ^the convent of the
Bishopric.
2. — Outside of the city of Nicolet: — A home, at St.-
Celestin ; hospital, home and patronage, at Drum-
mondville.
Diocese of Haileybury: — A hospital and an orphanage, at
la Tuque.
Diocese of Calgary: — Three houses for the service of the
poor Indians; 1. A hospital for the Indians, at Blood
Reserve, founded in 1893, by His Grace Mgr. Legal, o.m.i.,
Archbishop of Edmonton, then missionary among that
286
APPENDIX
tribe. The Nuns of the first contingent were: Srs. St.-
Eusebe, St.-Georges, St. -Joseph, St. -Louis and St. -Ger-
main ; 2. A boarding school, on the same reserve, founded
in 1898 ; 3. A boarding school, founded at Piegan Reserve,
by Sisters St.-Jean de Dieu, St.-Julien, and St.-Anne,
in 1896.
THE GREY NUNS OF CANADA ARE ACTUALLY
OVER FOUR THOUSAND.
The Mother House oe the Grey Nuns oe Montreal.
287
Warwick Bro's & Rutter, Limited,
Printers and Bookbinders, Toronto, Canada
255.91 D827G c.1
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