TO DO AND TO ENDURE
The Life of Catherine Donnelly, Sister of Service
BY
JEANNE R. BECK
Catherine Donnelly, Founder of the Sisters of Service
TO DO AND TO ENDURE
The Life of Catherine Donnelly, Sister of Service
BY
JEANNE R. BECK
Copyright © Sisters of Service of Canada Inc., 1997
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian Reprography Collective.
Editing: Diane Mew
Manuscript Preparation: Heather Duncan
Design (Text): Barry Jowett
Design (Cover): Sebastian Vasile
Design (Photo sections): Scott Reid
Printer: Best Book Manufacturers
Index: Claudia Willetts
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Beck, Jeanne Ruth Merifield.
To do and to endure
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55002-289-X
1. Donnelly, Catherine, 1884-1983. 2. Sisters of Service - Biography. 3. Nuns - Canada - Biography. I. Title
BX4237.B42 1997 271’.97 C97-930771-6
1 2 3 4 5 BJ 01 00 99 98 97
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Book Publishing Industry Development Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I THE LAND OF HER YOUTH: THE ADJALA COMMUNITY
II LIFE AS A TEACHER IN ONTARIO, 1904-1918
III ADVENTURES IN ALBERTA: AM I CALLED TO BE A RELIGIOUS?
IV CATHERINE PURSUES HER VISION: THE FOUNDING OF THE SISTERS OF SERVICE
VI THE FIRST MISSION AT CAMP MORTON
VII RETURN TO ALBERTA: PIONEERING IN VILNA
VIII SERVING IN A DEPRESSION-WRACKED COMMUNITY
IX CREATING A NEW RULE FOR A NEW ORDER
XI KEEPING THE ORDER ON COURSE
XIII BACK IN HARNESS: THE LAST YEARS OF TEACHING
XIV I DON’T WANT TO GROW OLD GRACEFULLY— USEFULLY — YES
SISTERS OF SERVICE MISSIONS, 1924-1997
PREFACE
In The Autumn of 1992 I was asked by The Sister General of the Sisters of Service, Frances Coffey, if I would consider writing the biography of Sister Catherine Donnelly, the founder of their order, the first English-speaking Canadian women’s Roman Catholic religious order.
I was not completely unfamiliar with the Sisters of Service, as I had come across tantalizing references to their work during my research on my Ph.D. dissertation on Catholic Social Thought in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Henry Somerville was editor of the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Register, from 1931 to 1954, and in that period wrote articles and editorials promoting this new group of women religious who had been freed from the confining traditions of the cloister in order to undertake the traditional good works of charity, nursing and education for the immigrants and Canadian citizens, particularly those living in the West in isolated settlements. The majority of the recent immigrants who were staking out prairie homesteads