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The Four Founding Sisters

Sister Mary Angele

ister Mary of the Sacred Heart, Sister Marie Angele, Sister Mary Lumena, Sister Mary Conception and a lay woman, who later became Sister Mary des Sept Douleurs, set off April 14th, 1858. They left Canada for the West, an area not yet included as part of the country. The journey to Victoria involved a boat from Montreal, a train from New York, a trip on the S.S. Philadelphia to connect to their rail crossing of the Isthmus of Panama, a steamer to San Francisco, another sea voyage as far as Portland, further travel north and the final passage into Victoria aboard the S.S. Seabird.


Sister Mary Lumena	Sister Mary Conception

The women arrived on June 5, 1858. The Hudson's Bay Company fort and wilderness they were expecting, from the description of Bishop Demers, was not what they found.

Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart

The women were shown to the log cabin that was to be their home and school, on a piece of land which remains as part of the grounds of St. Ann's Academy today. Mrs. Reed, a local woman, came with water, coal and wood, and the Sisters prepared for their first night, hanging their aprons in the windows in lieu of curtains. The school opened on Monday, June 7, and twelve children were registered.

Early Sisters

The early Sisters told those they met on their journey to Victoria that they were going to Vancouver Island in search of souls. Their intentions were to establish a school as a Christian mission. When it became clear that Victoria was a larger, more established centre than they had expected, they sent to Lachine for assistance. In 1859, Sister Mary Bon Secours arrived with her talents in the area of music.

Mother Mary
Providence McTucker

There was also a need to find a qualified, English speaking Sister, to teach the Anglophone children of the Hudson's Bay Company employees. Sister Mary Providence McTucker, a young woman of 22 from Sligo, Ireland, filled this role. She became a leader in the Sisters' community, and, as Provincial Superior from 1859 to 1881, guided St. Ann's through religious, business and academic concerns.

There is a long list of Sisters who made the voyage from Quebec to Victoria to participate in the early years of the Academy. Many of them missed their eastern home, and were afraid of the new lives they would lead in the log cabin and View Street schools. They are not anonymous, yet their roles as part of a community made their contributions, as well as their mistakes and difficulties, a collective effort.

Contact St. Anns Academy at stanns.academy@gems2.gov.bc.ca
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