sisters of st. joseph of toronto

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto trace their origins to France in the mid-17th century. After the congregation was almost wiped out after the French Revolution, Mother St. John Fontbonne refounded it in 1807. A North American mission was established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1836. Four Sisters came to Toronto in 1851 to care for the orphans, the sick, and the poor and to instruct the young. By 1950 the Congregation was prominent in the Catholic school system in Toronto and in many small towns in Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The Sisters came to Rosetown, Saskatchewan in 1935 at the request of Bishop Murray to run a convent boarding school for girls and a co-educational day school. The convent and Catholic school closed in 1970 and the Rosetown teaching mission closed in 1972. From 1983 until 1998, a community of Sisters worked in Saskatoon in deaf ministry, parish ministry, literacy, and with new immigrants and refugees. Today, the Sisters’ ministries focus on poverty, isolation, lack of community and the spiritual void in cities.

Linda Wicks

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