Interpretive
Centre: East Block,
1886
Priests' Room
![](images/images_places_interp_joseph_small.jpg) |
|
he
Priests' Room sat to the right of the chapel doorway. The
Sisters, as a community of women, did not have a priest living at
the Convent. It was important, however, that a priest come to offer
the morning Mass, the first meeting in the chapel of the day. A
Father, as a priest is also known, would come to St. Ann's from
St. Joseph's Hospital, across the street, or from St. Andrew's,
the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
No food was to be eaten before Mass, so once the service had been
finished, the Sisters would prepare breakfast and serve it to the
priest, on a buffet in this separate room. He would eat alone, usually
eggs and bacon or some other specially prepared meal delivered on
a dumb waiter, while a nun waited on him. Then, she would rush to
the Refectory, the dining room of the Convent, to catch a piece
of toast before her duties began for the day. The Sisters welcomed
the changes of Vatican
II in the 1960s, and the greater equality it brought to the
church organization.
![](images/images_places_confessional_250.jpg) |
|
A small set
of doorways connected this room to the chapel.
This made a tiny room, known as a confessional. A confessional is
an enclosed space where people could go to confess any sins or things
they felt they had done wrong, to the priest, who would then absolve
them in God's Name. A wooden grill separated the penitents from
the priest, so that they could speak anonymously. These doors are
now used when weddings are held in the chapel for the grooms to
enter through. There are plans to restore the Priests' Room, which
currently serves as an office for the Provincial
Capital Commission and the events co-ordinator at St. Ann's.
More
on the Interpretive Centre
|