A community founded in 1745 at Monteal by Madame d'Youville, known as the Grey Sisters, or Grey Nuns, from the colour of the costume. Just one century later, February, 1845, at the request of Bishop Phelan, Kingston, Mother General McMullin snet four sisters to ottawa, Ontario, then Bytown, in the Diocese of Kingston. Schools being the greatest need at Bytown, two classes were opened without delay, Sisters Elizabeth Bruyère and Helen Howard being the first teachers. Over one hundred and fifty ppupils attended. This was the beginning of the well-known Sacred heart or Rideau Street Boarding School. At the same time, a sister in charge of the sick poor organized the laity into helping centres. providentially a hospital was in working order when the ship-fever victims arrived from Ireland in the famine year of 1847. Teaching and the works of mercy are on a footing in this community. The Grey Nuns undertake any needed good work. Their novitiate receives choir nuns and lay sisters. The institute has so steadily increased that it has in Ottawa, in addition to Rideau Street convent, two high schools and sixteen parochial schools. The teachers hold summer schools, attend the normal summer school and qualify for the highest diplomas.

Attached to the hospital is the first training-school for nurses formed in Canada. There are also five homes for children and the aged poor, supported by voluntary offerings and a government allowance. In Hull, opposite Ottawa, are large parish schools, academic and elementary. A Catholic normal school will be opened in September, 1909. At Hudson Bay is an Indian school for the Crees ; along the ottawa River from its upper waters are three boarding schools, ten parochial schools and five hospitals ; at Lake St. peter, in Quebec province, are two boarding schools and an Indian school for the Abnaki. In 1857, a school was opened in Holy Angels parish, Buffalo, N.Y. it is situated on Porter and prospect Avenues and has had a very successful history.

In 1860 a boarding school and academy was founded at Plattsburg, N.Y. A parish school, governed by the public school principal and supported by the public school funds, existed until the "Garb-question" caused the sisters to withdraw. Plattsburg School Board sent protest in vain to Albany. There was but one anwer; the exciting garb must be discarded. But the school still exists, supported by Catholics. In 1863 a school was opened at Ogdensburg, N.Y., in the old Ford mansion, on a beautiful site, facing the St. Lawrence . It is now a home for the homeless. St. Mary's or the Cathedral school of Ogdensburg is second to none under the Regents. At the World's Fair it was accorded a medal in the exhibit of the University of New York. The sisters have also two hospitals at Odgensburg. Since 1881 Lowell and Haverhill, Massachusetts, have had parochial schools. Leo XIII proclaimed Mother d'Youville venerable. Her canonization is being considered at Rome. As she, the first Grey Nun, chose the Cross as her emblem, and the object of her special devotion, Leo XIII named her faithful daughters "Grey Nuns of the Cross", a title limited to the Ottawa foundation only, the headquarters of the houses mentioned above.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online