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NUNS
Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns)
The Sisters of Charity, perhaps better known as the Grey Nuns, arrived at Lac La Biche Mission in 1862 and departed in 1898. They operated a hospital, orphanage, and, in some years, a school.
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Arrive at Notre Dame des Victoires, Aug. 26th,1862
At the end of the summer of 1860, after eight years of
laborious endeavours, Father Tissot and Father Maisonneuve at last had the
consolation of seeing their Mission progressing materially and spiritually
each year, and being placed more and more on a lasting basis. They had built
a fine two-story house in stone, measuring 30'x50'. It was now time to think
of rising and offering the poor natives of Lac La Biche a good school and,
in due course, an orphanage.
To help a generation of a people, it is a point of absolute
necessity to start by looking after the young; which is an impossibility without
a school conducted in a wise and Christian spirit.
It was resolved, therefore, by the Fathers, that they
should bring Sisters to the Mission of Our Lady of Victory. Bishop Taché
again applied to the Superioress General of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal
to be kind enough to send a little colony of her good nuns to Lac La Biche.
Three Sisters received their order of obedience and prepared to depart, glad
to cooperate with the Fathers in the establishment of Catholicism in these
far off territories now being opened to their zeal.
In the beginning of May, 1862, Father Maisonneuve left
with some men for Red River to meet the Sisters there. He arrived after a
32-day journey.
The three sisters who originally made the trip from Montreal
to Lac La Biche with a stopover in St. Boniface were Reverend Sister Guenette
Superior, Sister Daunais and Sister Tisseur. At this point, a young Canadian
girl, Marie Marguerite Lalonde, begged to be allowed to go with them and devote
herself to the Indian missions. The sisters tearfully left Montreal on May
30th, 1862, for St. Boniface and arrived there, following what appears to
have been a routine journey, on June 7th, 1862. They were able to enjoy the
pleasure of visiting with the Sisters at St. Boniface for a whole month, leaving
St. Boniface for the vast unknown and Lac La Biche on July 8th, 1862.
The trip to Lac La Biche became quite the expedition.
Each one of the Sisters was given charge of her own cart with its own oxen
to guide; each oxen was individually named Raille (Quail), Brandy, Wapouce
(Rabbit) and Corbeau (Crow). Such pretty names were not nearly enough to forego
some necessary goading to continue their trek.
Needless to say, the voyage was long, difficult and tedious,
but it had its moments; many amusing anecdotes detailed in their own journals
make for fascinating reading. Overall, the journey was a reasonably happy
one, except for an accident where a cart overturned between Fort Carlton and
Fort Pitt.
Marie Marguerite suffered a contusion to her leg. A torrential
rain followed which, with due respect to the accident, seems to have heightened
rather than dampened their spirits and the hilarity of the moment.
Their arrival at Lac La Biche was indeed a surprise for
all, having arrived at the Mission late at night. The ceremony there was neither
long nor elaborate. The sisters were tired and that very night were installed
in their totally unfurnished quarters with light from a lantern. They were
ready for a well-deserved rest.
Arrival
of the Sisters to this wilderness mission created quite a stir amongst the
inhabitants who wanted to see them, to talk with them and, in particular,
to watch them. This occurred to the extent that it had to be explained that
the Sisters were women of prayer whom God loved very much and that they were
to be loved and respected and should not be spied upon through their windows...
a warning that was timely indeed, in that the Sisters were unable to obtain
window curtain material for some time.
Once in Lac La Biche, the Sisters had the consolation
of seeing the Natives grouping around the Mission. In the course of the summer,
ten new houses were under construction and they could readily see that there
would be plenty of work for their zeal. They courageously took up their duties
at once, sharing the labour in a spirit of mutual charity. They took charge
of the chapel, the Sacristy and Vestry, the wardrobes of the missionaries,
the kitchen arrangements and the school. Oftentimes too, according to their
strength, they helped on the farm, which was being developed more and more
each year, but the principle aim of the constitution of their order was rightly
the conduct of schools, hospitals and orphanages.
© 2003 Société
culturelle Mamowapik and the Lac La Biche Mission Historical
Society (All Rights Reserved)
