In September, I embarked on a Sisters of St. Joseph heritage tour to Toronto, Ontario. The purpose of this trip was twofold. First, I wanted to visit and photograph the gravesite of Mother Delphine Fontbonne, one of the original six sisters to come to the United States from France in 1836. Second, I received an invitation to tour the archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto and see one-of-a-kind artifacts, including objects brought across the ocean from France.
Mother M. Delphine Fontbonne
Mother Delphine Fontbonne was the first superior of the log cabin in Carondelet upon her arrival to St. Louis in 1836. She also taught French at several early Sisters of St. Joseph (CSJ) schools in town. She spent a total of 14 years in St. Louis before leaving for Philadelphia in 1850. The Philadelphia mission was still part of the St. Louis congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph at that time, and Mother Delphine was in charge of an orphanage and novitiate.
In 1851, she and three other sisters left Philadelphia in response to a call to care for orphans as well as the sick and poor in Toronto. This mission in Toronto established the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada. She became the first Superior General of the new foundation and lived out her remaining years in Toronto, though sadly she contracted typhus in 1856 and died at the young age of 42.
Main Residence in Toronto
The Toronto sisters’ motherhouse has moved four times over their 174-year history. In 2011, the sisters moved their generalate, business office and some ministries to a new administration center and planned for a new assisted living residence and care center. They purchased the property and built the current structure, which opened in 2013 and is an ecologically sustainable building.
The building design also incorporated the historical Taylor House residence already on the site, which they connected to the new structure via an enclosed walkway in the back. The Taylor House was built in 1885 as a private residence. The sisters painstakingly restored many features of the house, and it now serves as space for meetings, guest rooms and a library.
St. Michael’s Cemetery
On my first full day in Toronto, Archivist Linda Wicks arranged for a group tour of St. Michael’s Cemetery, where Mother Delphine is buried. A small group of sisters and staff met us at the cemetery entrance while we waited for someone from the Catholic Cemeteries office to open the gates for us.
For protection of the grounds and monuments, the cemetery is only open a few select holidays a year or by appointment. This means that if you visit Toronto, you will need to call ahead for access. The cemetery entrance is nondescript, almost hidden between buildings at the end of a small alleyway.
The cemetery was consecrated in 1855 and is a beautiful, sacred green space in the city surrounded by homes and tall apartment buildings. In addition to Mother Delphine Fontbonne, nearly 100 other Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto are buried here, some of whom professed vows in St. Louis. We walked straight through the cemetery towards the other end to the CSJ section. Mother Delphine’s grave is marked by a large stone cross. We laid sunflowers by her grave and held a short prayer service.
Toronto Archives
Later that same day, I visited the Toronto CSJ Archives, which are located in the CSJ Administration Centre. Linda Wicks and her assistant Kaitlyn German showed me around the archives.
Highlights of the tour include seeing a rosary owned by Mother St. John Fontbonne. She gave this rosary to her brother Claude the night before she was to have been guillotined in France. He later bequeathed it to Delphine (his daughter). She brought it to America and subsequently to Toronto. The rosary is very long like the rosary worn as part of our congregation’s traditional habit, but the cross and beads are small like you would find on a regular-sized contemporary rosary.
Another highlight was seeing the prescription book (i.e. book of medicinal recipes) given to Delphine by Mother St. John in 1835 prior to her departure for America. While the Carondelet Consolidated Archives has a digital copy of the prescription book, nothing compares with viewing the original manuscript. Written mostly in French with black ink, the cursive handwriting is an exquisite example of the penmanship of the early 1800s. Unfortunately, we don’t know whose writing it is. The penmanship also changes near the end of the book and the language switches from French to English.
My tour also included a look at the Canadian Federation archives, which are housed in Toronto (much like the U.S. Federation archives are now housed in St. Louis).
University of St. Michael’s College
Before departing Toronto, I also visited the Special Collections Department at the John J. Kelly Library at the University of St. Michael’s College. St. Michael’s is a federated college of the University of Toronto but retains its Catholic affiliation and has its own library.
The three remaining Canadian congregations of Sisters of St. Joseph are making future plans to donate their archives to St. Michael’s. Other Canadian congregations are also interested in donating their archives to this emerging Catholic research center. The library has a lovely exhibit area on the first floor to showcase the amazing stories held in these religious archives.
I also toured the space where the religious archives will be housed, as well as some artifacts they’ve already acquired, such as a large safe from the Sisters of Service of Canada. Many women’s religious orders are struggling with where to send their archives as they sell properties and prepare for completion. It was both educational and fascinating to learn about this endeavor to collect all the Canadian CSJ archives for storage in one facility.
Loving Unity
I found my trip to Toronto educational and fascinating. The historic sites and artifacts are wonderful, but experiencing the charism of unifying love in another country is equally amazing. The charism truly transcends congregations and geographical boundaries.
One cannot meet the Canadian sisters without feeling the special connection shared by all Sisters of St. Joseph and partners in mission. I enjoyed bonding with the sisters over our shared history, social justice values and appreciation for pioneer sisters such as Mother Delphine Fontbonne.
Catherine, I love this article about your trip to Toronto. You are an historian in addition to being archivist. Very interesting information that I never heard before. I missed a lot of history since I and three others spent our second year novitiate living at the Juniorate at Fontbonne. We were an experiment. Two of us taught fulltime ( I had a Masters in chemistry when I entered and taught that year at Fontbonne) and two did post-graduate work. We didn’t get the usual formation for second year novices. In fact, we didn’t get any formation that year. The Novice Director lived at Carondelet and said she couldn’t do it at a distance; the Juniorate Superior claimed no responsibility for us since she had a whole tribe of Junior Sisters to tend to. Sister Theresa Martin taught at St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf and commuted from the Juniorate; Sister Anne Kelly worked on her Masters in Social Work at SLU; Sister Margaret Hamm, already a Physical Therapist, worked on an Occupational Therapy degree at Washington University.
Catherine, so much to learn about S. Delphine and the relationship of the CSJs of Canada. With thanks for your pilgrimage and these comments. I was caught into the descriptions of the objects in the archives. And your photos. Please continue to put them on the FB page!! They take us further into the reality of our mothers in the faith.