Reeks F01-S026 - Annals Wetaskiwin, Alta. series

These records were accumulated by the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario

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In the early 1900s, the great expansion into western Canada experienced a steady stream of diverse immigrant settlers from eastern Canada, United States, and Europe who sought a new life in the vast farm areas of the prairie provinces. On December 21, 1912, His Grace Archbishop E. Legal founded the Sacred Heart Parish in the then newly emerging City of Edmonton to provide a spiritual foundation and to accommodate the surge of newcomers as they got settled in their new province. In 1922, the Archbishop Henry Joseph O’Leary requested Mother Mechtilde McCarthy, the Superior General of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario, have the Sisters to serve in the educational field in the Archdiocese of Edmonton, Alberta. On July 25, 1922, a group of seven Sisters travelled to Edmonton by train. Upon arrival, they purchased St. Ann’s Convent from the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus and renamed it the Sacred Heart Convent. Their residence and the Sacred Heart Church were both adjacent to the school located in the city center of Edmonton. This area and the outskirts surrounding Edmonton is situated within the Treaty Six Territory and the traditional homelands and the Métis Nation of Alberta Region Four, as well as the Nêhiyaw (Cree), Denesuliné (Dené), Nakota Sioux (Stoney), Anishnaabe (Ojibway/Saulteaux), Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk), and Niitsitapi (Blackfoot).

The Sisters took charge of the Sacred Heart School, a two storey, twelve room, red brick building, with a capacity of 350 students. The Sisters held classes from kindergarten to grade eight. In 1922, the Sisters also operated and immediately opened a Novitiate and boarding school. The first Novice was received in August 1923, and by 1930 there were twelve in the Novitiate, which continued to increase in number until it was united with the London Motherhouse Novitiate in 1940. Over the years, the Sisters served as educators, administrators and principals and remained at the Sacred Heart Convent until April 14, 1961, when they moved into their newly built residence at the Edmonton Regional House, also referred to as St. Joseph’s Convent Regional House. The Sisters lived here until 2000 when it was sold to John and Ausma Birzgalis, and it became Venta Nursing Home. The school was under the Sisters’ management until Sister Irene Fitzgerald retired in 1966, and Sister Gertrude Walsh was the last Sister to teach at the Sacred Heart School in 1969. By 1970 all the Sisters had withdrawn from the Sacred Heart school.

At first the Sisters taught the children general subjects like reading, spelling, and arithmetic with an emphasis on English language acquisition. Then in the years of World War II, there was a great push for cultural development courses, and in the early 1930s during the great depression the Sisters distributed fruit and cookies, and later the school board provided milk and vitamin pills. In the 1940s when a radio and phonograph were added to the classrooms, social studies and music classes were resounding successes. During the Alberta oil boom in the 1950s, industrial arts, home economics, special needs, and art and drama classes were introduced, as well as instigating a pre-employment work experience course called the Integrated Occupational Program.

From 1922 to 1992, about 56 Sisters taught at and administered schools that were primarily within the area or the outlying district of the Sacred Heart Parish. Some of the schools the Sisters were active in include the Sacred Heart School of Edmonton from 1922 to 1940, Fairview School from 1922 to 1933, St. Patrick’s Elementary School from 1933 to 1985 (formerly Fairview School), St. Francis of Assisi Middle School from 1928 to 1974, St. Michael’s School from 1945 to 1965, St. Basil’s School from 1952 to 1992, Archbishop O’Leary High School from 1960 to 1974, St. Cecilia’s Junior High Composite School from 1965 to 1969, and St. Anne’s School from 1974 to 1982. Other schools located outside of Edmonton where the Sisters worked include the Sacred Heart School of Wetaskiwan in Wetaskiwin from 1929 to 1942, St. Brides School in St. Brides from 1933 to 1964, Our Lady of Fatima School in Killam from 1952 to 1992, and St. Bernadette’s School from 1957 to 1991 and St. Nicholas School from 1960 to 1970 in Beverley.

In late 1925, the Stettler Board of Trade in Stettler, located 185 km south of Edmonton, asked Reverend Father Ernest Battle of the Catholic Church Parish, to reach out to the Archbishop Henry J. O’Leary. The purpose was to establish what was known as a “Sisters Hospital” run by the Sisters of St. Joseph who had a renowned reputation for their medical services to soldiers during the First World War. In February 1926, at the request of Archbishop O’Leary, Sister Patricia Coughlin, Sister Virginia Lobban, Sister Austin Gurvine, and Sister Jane Frances O’Rourke travelled from London, Ontario to Stettler, Alberta, to operate a hospital. Reverend Father Battle arranged for the Sisters to work in a large building called Carder Hall, which was the former Stettler Cigar Factory that now served as a temporary hospital. In 1927, a decision to construct a 25-bed municipal hospital rather than a private Catholic hospital by a newly formed Municipal Board corporation with representatives from the districts of Settler, Botha, Haig, Waverly, and Dublin all in the County of Stettler, and Vim in the County of Camrose meant the end of the Nursing Sisters’ time in Stettler.

The Sisters opened and administered several small hospitals in rural Alberta: Stettler Hospital from 1926 to 1927, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Galahad from 1927 to 1978, St. Paul's Hospital in Rimbey from 1932 to 1949, and Killam General Hospital from 1930 to 1990 and Flagstaff Beaver Auxiliary Hospital from 1963 to 1990, both in Killam. The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario provided funds to build and operate the hospitals until 1958, when the provincial department of the Ministry of Health and the Hospitals Division took over the administration and enacted the Alberta Health Plan. This government policy prevented any church owned and operated voluntary hospitals from being constructed in Alberta. However, it did have a limited provision to allow some upgrades and renovations to existing medical buildings. Also in 1958, there was a polio epidemic that struck throughout Alberta, requiring the services of the Sisters to work at full capacity.

The Sisters were instrumental in the early development of health care and social service, caring for the sick, poor and disadvantaged in the cities, towns, and rural areas in Alberta. In the harsh economically depressed years from 1930 to 1945, the Sisters never turned anyone away who needed help, and allowed payment in coal, hay, wood, farm produce, and manual labour. In the years of the Second World War, nursing Sisters worked up to 40 hours per week without a break. During the 1940s to 1960s, the Sisters were very active in coordinating relief work. During their time in Alberta, the Sisters occupied various health care roles in nursing, management, housekeeping, business administration, pastoral care, and as dieticians, occupational therapists, radiologists and technologists in medical labs.

The Sisters collaborated with services and agencies such as the Catholic Social Services, the Boyle Street Community Centre, Boyle-McCauley Health Centre, Edmonton People In Need Shelter Society, Elizabeth Fry Society, Edmonton Inner City Housing Society, Edmonton’s Women’s Shelter, Inner City Youth Development Association, and the Alberta Human Rights Commission. They worked in various capacities and supported the needs of the marginalized, the un-housed, people with severe or chronic mental health needs, previous offenders, youth at-risk, underage expectant mothers, and individuals struggling with substance abuse. The Sisters acted as board members, lived-in on-site as support persons, or they assisted financially through the advocacy for the Social Justice Commission of the Diocese. New initiatives for those in need were also launched to provide a sense of home and safe spaces for growth and social support. Elizabeth House was opened in 1987 by Sister Mary Leo Kirwin in partnership with the Elizabeth Fry Society to serve formerly incarcerated women, and Tess’s Place opened in 1988 by Sister Therese (Tess) Carmel Slavik in collaboration with the Boyle Street Co-op Youth Unit was for homeless teenagers coping with addictions. The Crossroads House Too, opened in December 1994 by Sister Catherine (Kitty) Stafford, provided shelter for former female sex workers over the age of 18, and was a project with Edmonton City Centre Church Corporation. The Anglican Parish of Christ Church donated their former unused rectory for the Crossroads House Too, paid all the expenses, including rent, utilities, insurance, and made substantial monetary donations.

The legacy of services provided by the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario in the Archdiocese of Edmonton, Alberta, in the field of education, healthcare, social work, and spiritual care provided a foundation that helped to establish the many present day Catholic schools, hospitals, and social welfare organizations.

This project has been made possible in part by Library and Archives Canada’s Documentary Heritage Communities Program. By Lyllie Sue August 2024.