Subseries 01 - History

5 cm of textual records

This subseries contains the history of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, during their mission in St. Thomas, Ontario. There are historical summaries and short drafts about the various groups of Sisters who resided at St. Joseph’s Convent on White Street in St. Thomas, when it first opened in 1879 until its closing in 1994. The Sisters were assigned ministries in teaching, social work, and spiritual guidance in the Parish of Holy Angels. From 1994 to 2004, Sister Mary Boer was the last remaining Sister living in St. Thomas. She lived alone in a Community apartment on the second floor of a house on Wellington Street. In this subseries, Sister Mary Boere chronicled her education ministry as a teacher at William Sherlock Morrison School and Monsignor Morrison Catholic School. Sister Mary wrote about her retirement in 1996, after thirty-one years of teaching and her work as a Pastoral Assistant at the Holy Angels’ Parish, helping with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program, Baptism and other sacramental preparations, and starting an Associate Group that met monthly with Sister Doreen Kraemer as the animator. Sister Mary documented her professional development activities including starting a Pastoral Visitor’s course in 2004, at the Elgin General Hospital, and she wrote about her post-graduate work with patients in a program under the care of Reverend Adele Miles, the Pastoral Care Consultant. There is a postcard from Father Leo James Slatterie to the Sisters; invitation cards for the silver jubilee of Sister Mary Brendan and centennial celebration commemorating the Sisters’ presence at Holy Angels Church; event program brochures for Sister Patrice Ritchie’s Religious Profession, and the 25th Anniversary of Mount St. Joseph, in London, Ontario; and a booklet titled Fiftieth Anniversary of Ordination, Right Reverend Thomas West, Domestic Prelate, 1876-1926. This subseries also contains news clippings related to Sister Mary Boere, Reverend Mother Mary Julia (Cecilia) Moore, Reverend Charles Thomas McManus, and the murder of Johanna Hassel in Holy Angels’ Church in 1977.