Order of Sisters of Charity of Montreal

.]

The order was founded when d'Youville and three of her friends formed a religious association to care for the poor. They rented a small house in Montreal on 30 October 1738, taking in a small number of destitute persons. On 3 June 1753 the society received royal sanction, which also transferred to them the rights and privileges previously granted by letters patent to the Frères Hospitaliers in 1694. At that time they also took over the work of the Frères Hospitaliers at the Hôpital Général. The hospital residents mocked the nuns by calling them "les grises" - a phrase meaning both "the grey women" and "the drunken women", in reference to d'Youville's late husband, a notorious bootlegger. Madame d'Youville and her colleagues adopted the particular dress of their order in 1755 in honour of the nickname. [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0003455 Canadian Encyclopedia article on the Grey Nuns.] Accessed August 26 2008.]

The rule given to d'Youville and her companions by Father Louis Normand in 1745 received episcopal sanction in 1754, when Monseigneur de Pontbriant formed the society into an official religious community. This rule forms the basis of the present constitution, which was approved by Pope Leo XIII on 30 July 1880. Besides the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the sisters pledge themselves to devote their lives to the service of suffering humanity.

The order undertook the first mission by a female religious order to Western Canada in 1844, when a colony of Grey Nuns left their convent and travelled to Saint Boniface, on the shore of the Red River.

As of 2008 the Grey Nuns operate in Canada, the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Haiti, Central African Republic, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic. [ [http://www.grey-nuns.org/where.aspx Grey Nuns ministries worldwide] . Accessed August 26 2008.] [http://www.greynun.org/Whatis/whatis.htm Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart Ministries] . Accessed August 26 2008.] They once operated a number of major hospitals in Canada; as provincial governments and church authorities moved to standardize both ownership and operation of hospitals, many of these hospitals passed into the hands of Church corporations and the Grey Nuns changed focus. They now operate shelters for battered women (with and without children), shelters for women in need, clothing and food dispensaries, centres for the disabled, and some health care facilities. [ [http://www.sgm.qc.ca/sgm/anglais/a_texteengagement.htm Current ministries of the Grey Nuns.] Accessed August 26, 2008.] St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg is still owned by the Grey Nuns; [ [http://www.sbgh.mb.ca/campus_sbgh/index.html St. Boniface General Hospital.] Accessed 26 August 2008.] hospitals previously owned, operated, or enlarged by the order include the former Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary, [ [http://www.ucalgary.ca/lib-old/SpecColl/holycros.htm University of Calgary Library Special Collection article on Holy Cross School of Nursing.] Accessed August 26, 2008.] St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon [ [http://www.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/your_health/ch_sph_home.htm Saskatoon Health Region article on St. Paul's Hospital.] Accessed 26 August 2008.] , and the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in Edmonton. [http://www.abheritage.ca/francophone/en/background/mission_grey_nuns.html Alberta Heritage article on Grey Nuns.] Accessed 26 August 2008.] Many of these health care institutions were founded by missionary nuns sent out from convents in Quebec and Ontario.

Grey Nuns may work with the incarcerated. Some chapters are also dedicated to peace and justice; at least one chapter, the Order of Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, has declared its properties a nuclear-free zone. [ [http://www.greynun.org/Whatis/whatis.htm Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart mission.] Accessed 26 August 2008.]

Although the order's informal name contains the word "nuns", members of the order are actually classified by the Roman Catholic Church as religious sisters, as they are not cloistered. They no longer wear their distinctive grey habit and now wear street clothes.

In 1993 it was estimated that there were just under 3,000 Grey Nuns in Canada, mainly in Quebec and Ontario.

References

Further reading

*"The Grey Nuns and the Red River Settlement" by Dennis King. Toronto: Book Society of Canada, 1980. ISBN 9780772552945