This sous-fonds contains material created and amassed by Sister Marie Angela Aubert. Sister Marie Angela Aubert was a writer of poetry, articles, poems and more and much of that material is included here. The scripts, records, and correspondence about the over 140 plays she wrote inspired by the Bible are present. A notable inclusion is The Great Adventure, a play written and produced by Sister Marie Angela Aubert for the 125th Anniversary of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London. There is also correspondence with the Bishops of London granting her plays Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, which means that the content of the plays was found to be in keeping with the teachings of the Church, are of good quality, and can be published. Her work was also included in Fine Lines: 1997 Anthology and Fine Lines II: 1998 Anthology by London & Area Writers. Both books are within this sous-fonds. In addition, there are various serial publications and clippings present which feature Sister Marie Angela Aubert’s poems, plays, reflections on her life and religious experiences, articles on education, and Letters to the Editor. There is also a research paper she wrote on the impact of Christianity in a detention centre. Sister Marie Angela Aubert was the Coordinator of R.C. [Roman Catholic] Jail Ministry Volunteers and the scripts for communion services at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre are present here, too. The sous-fond also includes certificates, diplomas, transcripts, and teaching licenses presented to and earned by Sister Marie Angela Aubert, including her B.A. diploma from the University of Windsor and B.Ed. diploma from the University of Alberta. Sister Marie Angela Aubert spent much of her life as a teacher. While working at O'Leary High School she got the students involved in the Junior Achievements Program and at Catholic Central High School she supervised the CCH Business Club. Newsletters, administrative documents, correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and an article written by her from these two programs are included in this sous-fonds. There are also invitations, awards lists, and thank-you notes from Sister Marie Angela Aubert’s time at these schools.
Aubert, Marie AngelaThis sous-fonds contains records pertaining to Sister Margaret Ferris’s education, professional career, artistic endeavors, personal life, and travels. Sister Margaret Ferris was an avid academic and eventually became an instructor. There are various records from her academic pursuits present here, including her many degrees and certificates, research notes, papers, theses, report cards, transcripts, photographs, a scrapbook, and regalia from her Doctorate commencement ceremony. Based on her areas of interest in her studies, she wrote and published a book in 1993 called Compassioning: Basic Counselling Skills for Christian Care-Givers which was translated into Chinese in 2010. Drafts, correspondence with publishers, English and Chinese editions of the book, and material from the book launching party are included. There are also records from when she was teaching. These records are primarily concerned with her career as an instructor at St. Peter’s Seminary and the adaptations of Compassioning: Basic Counselling Skills for Christian Care-Givers as course books for classes at the University of Western Ontario, but there is also a speech by Sister Margaret and her Stewards in Catholic Education Award.
Sister Margaret was an artist, and she created the design for the cards and pamphlets of the congregation’s 2004 Jubilee celebration, which was her Golden Jubilee. Original artworks, preliminary sketches, and replicas are included in this sous-fonds. She was also an avid traveler and photographs, travel diaries, a scrapbook, and ephemera from these trips are present. She made trips to Yellowknife, Quebec, Peru, Florida, California, Rome, and a pilgrimage to France. On the trip to Rome, she acted as a correspondent for the Catholic News Times. There are also personal memorabilia, such as photographs, scrapbooks, a papal blessing, a yearbook from St. Patrick’s High School where she was principal, and an invitation to the 1976 Opening of the Ontario Legislature reception.
Ferris, MargaretSeries contains Sister Norita Keenan’s single page memoir, a postulant requirement list, souvenir booklet of the Diamond Jubilee, chaplain list, meal seating plan, farewell ceremony agenda and schedule, photographs, land and property maintenance receipts, property sketch, chronology of property transfers and sales, rededication ceremony program and speech, letter from General Superior to Sisters, decorative Christmas card and envelope with list of donors of a car, newspaper clippings, student created books, and Bach sheet music owned by Cesar Borre.
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada (London, Ont.)This series contains records reflecting the policies and procedures of the congregation from the late 1960s to the mid-2000s. Included in the series are community handbooks and Called to Unity booklets (guidance for the Sisters in their union with God and the community), both of which discuss the Sisters’ role within and outside the congregation. Topics include community prayer, education, donations, finances, legal advice and procedures, and travel policies. Also included are position papers detailing how a Sister is to behave and conduct herself as a member of the congregation, which were prepared by various committees including the spiritual life commission, habit commission, commission on education, and homemaking commission. Records relating to congregational staff include the Human Resource Policies Handbook, which details the roles and responsibilities related to the working environment. The other records in this series pertain to the congregation as a whole; these include policies and procedures regarding sexual misconduct, abuse, and how such misconduct is reported and dealt with in the congregation. Also included is policy pertaining to the appropriate use of technology, such as computers and the Internet. There are also correspondence, memos, and reports related to the development of policy by the travel committee, who mediated discussions around the Sisters’ travel.
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada (London, Ont.)The sous-fonds contains the personal and business records of Mother Julia Moore. This includes personal and business correspondence, primarily from her tenure as General Superior; biographical records and photographs; her work, Beginnings in London Diocese 1868-1879; photographs and a diary from her trip to Italy and France; records from her trip to Ireland as part of the Ireland project; photographs and an account from her time in Peru; watercolour artwork gifted by Sister Mary Celine Janisse; photographs of the Pope and Papal mass; a yarmulke and photographs from the bar mitzvah of Irwin Zaifman; her speeches; her historical research, predominantly on the Sisters of St. Joseph; pamphlets and articles collected by Mother Julia Moore, notably of Pierre Wolff, S. J.’s works; information and documents pertaining to the International Union of Superiors General (U.I.S.G.); photographs and correspondence from the International Union of Mothers’ General meeting in 1969; a souvenir booklet from Pope John Paul II’s 1984 visit to Toronto, Canada; and a feast day book about the founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Reverend Jean Pierre Médaille. There is also material concerning the 2005 Lyon heritage display.
Moore, JuliaThis fonds consists of records that pertain to the House of Providence and Marian Villa. More specifically, it consists of histories, commemorative materials, and administrative materials. There are also records related to the Marian Villa Auxiliary.
House of ProvidenceThis series consists of contracts, deeds, plans, and newspaper clippings relating to Hellmuth College from 1866-1952. There is a general history and photographs of Hellmuth College. The series includes photographs of the Chapel and Motherhouse. The series contains a description of the layout of the Orphanage as well as information regarding the day-to-day routines. The series also contains notes on the process of purchasing the Mills property and written summaries of ecclesiastical events such as the Eucharistic Congress at Mount St. Joseph in July, 1923 and the visit of Cardinal Villeneuve in 1934. There are also special issues of the Western Gazette and magazine and newspaper articles, including a biography of Bishop Hellmuth, and the building of the new Motherhouse.
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada (London, Ont.)This series contains records created and accumulated by the office of the General Treasurer for the Sisters of St. Joseph in London, Ontario. The records are primarily related to managing the donations given by and to the Sisters and the funding for their ministries, missions, Motherhouses, residences, and outreach projects. In London, St. Joseph’s Hospitality Centre provided food security programs, Medaille Retreat House was a spiritual retreat centre for the Sisters, the Queens Avenue building was a home for women in need, and the Boulee Street house was a ministry to the poor. The Adult Spirituality Centre, St. Joseph’s Manor, the Foster Home on St. Rose Avenue, and Holy Rosary Convent were all in Windsor. St. Joseph’s Manor and the Foster Home were ministries to children in need and Holy Rosary Convent was the main convent for the Windsor Sisters. The Adult Spirituality Centre in Windsor provided spiritual direction and retreats. Another spiritual retreat, Marygrove, was in Aylmer. Outside of Ontario, there are records concerning the Photo History Project at Ataguttaaluk School in Igloolik, Nunavut in which Sister Mary Diesbourg participated, the Sisters at St. Joseph Regional House in Edmonton, Alberta, and the mission in Peru including the collaboration with Heart-Links, a London based charity focused on Peru.
The series includes reports, meeting agendas and minutes, mission statements, budgets, floorplans, funding proposals and requests, grant applications, forms, lists of Sisters involved with specific projects and sites, and correspondence concerning funding, donations, location changes, operations, and testimonials from the public supporting the Sisters’ projects. There are also resolution agreements from the Sisters’ projects. One agreement is with the sole shareholder of a company connected to a property owned by the London congregation, Marygrove, concerning the finances and leadership positions within the company. The other agreement is between the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph to decide the future of the Adult Spirituality Center.
One of the ways that Sisters could request funding for their ministries from the congregation was through the Apostolic Services Fund. Arrangements for the creation of this fund, outlines of requirements to qualify for funding and funding applications are included.
Not all the material is concerned with finances. Some records pertain to other projects the General Treasurer was involved with, particularly when Sister Loretta Manzara held the office. In 2007, the Sisters moved from Mount St. Joseph to a new LEED certified residence at 485 Windermere Road. in the series includes records related to this transition such as the Sisters’ Statement of Values, reports, pamphlets, news clippings, an issue of London Citylife, and newsletters (one of which was titled Crossing Over). There is also material concerned with the sale of Mount St. Joseph, the former Motherhouse.
At the 2012 Foundation Day, the Annals Project was presented. It focused on a shift from keeping annals to looking at the life of the entire congregation as expressed through Chapter reports. Pamphlets, agendas, meeting minutes, and a report on this project are present. Accompanying this material are annotated photocopies of various reports covering the Sisters’ activities from 1959 to 2011 which were referenced for the project.
Records related to the London Sisters’ involvement in Goderich, Ontario are also present, such as correspondence and pamphlets about their commitment to the area and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first convent outside London.
The series also includes descriptions of icons painted by Sister Mary Anthony Hartleib, as well as prints of some of her artwork (including on the back of her funeral card), and photographs of artwork by Philip Aziz. Other photographs in the series are from the mission in Peru and of students and elders in the report for the Photo History Project at Ataguttaaluk School.
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada (London, Ont.)This series concerns the Sisters of St. Joseph’s involvement in education in Ontario. The records are focused on school boards, associations, educational policies and regulations, and the changes to Catholic education. The types of records included in this series are minutes, bulletins, newsletters, magazines, booklets, clippings, photographs, correspondence, annual reports, and event programs. The major educational organizations these records deal with include the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, the Ontario Separate School Trustees Association, the Waterloo Region Roman Catholic Separate School Board, the Huron Perth Separate School Board, the Separate School Board of London, and the Association of Catholic High School Boards of Ontario. Much of the material concerns changes to education and Catholic education in Canada, and many publications on the topic are included. Some of the publications were created by the Sisters, such as The Changing face of Catholic Education in London 1858-1963, a study for the Separate School Board of London, Ontario. Sister Patricia Hogan was the Religious Co-Ordinator for the magazine Spiritual Development and several issues of this magazine and clippings of articles written by her are present. Sister Alice Marie McDonald and Sister M. Stanislaus McKinnon were involved with the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario which created the Hall-Dennis Report. Photographs of Sister Alice Marie McDonald and members of the committee working on said report are present along with a summary of the report from the view of Catholic schools.
There are also minutes from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph Advisory Board, a committee within the community that oversaw the involvement of Sisters in education. This included institutes operated by the Sisters and those where the Sisters were employed. The minutes include discussions of contracts, school policies, reports from teachers’ meetings, and Christian education. Amongst the minutes are agendas, correspondence with the advisory board, bulletins, and statistics of Sisters working in schools.
Additionally, there is material focused on the history of the Sisters’ involvement in education and Catholic education in Canada. There is correspondence concerning the establishment of Huron Perth Separate School Board Archives and histories of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Goderich, Kingsbridge, St. Mary’s Town, Seaforth, Zurich, and Kinkora, Ontario. Dr. Elizabeth Smyth studied women religious who taught in Canada and there is correspondence about her research with the Sisters. There are various publications by Dr. Elizabeth Smyth, including her thesis, The Lessons of Religion and Science: The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph and St. Joseph’s Academy, Toronto 1854-1911.
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada (London, Ont.)This is a collection of histories and reference material, including publications and photocopies of historical documents and correspondence, created and collected by the Sisters illustrating the foundation and history of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario. Topics range from the founding of the religious order of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Le Puy, France by Father Jean Pierre Médaille in 1648 to the activities of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the diocese of London, Ontario from their foundation to the early 2000s. A major focus of the material is on the founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London as a branch of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto and the establishment of an independent congregation. Many of the Sisters wrote accounts, chronicles, booklets, and essays on their history, some of which were published. Drafts and published versions of these writings are included here alongside histories written by those from outside the congregation. There are also various photocopies of records from the late 1800s related to the early history of the Sisters. This includes publications on their history, correspondence about establishing the community (though there are also some original correspondence), Acts of Profession, Acts of Reception, the 1871 Act of Incorporation and the 1915 and 1938 amendments. There are, however, original documents from the late 1800s and early 1900s as well, such as photographs of Sisters, “History of the Sisters of St. Joseph,” (which was written at Sacred Heart Convent, London), and an excerpt from a manuscript by Bishop R. H. Dignan. The approbation decree and pontifical rights from the Holy See in Rome for Sisters of St. Joseph of London’s are also present. The material in this collection also includes photographs, postcards, a photo album, and news clippings.