Three Catholic Congregations in a Nineteenth-Century Canadian City: Providing Social Services, Claiming Space for Women in Kingston, 1841-1874

Abstract

This thesis examines three Roman Catholic congregations of women, the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and the Sisters of Providence, and the services they provided between 1841 and 1874 in Kingston, Canada West and Ontario. A careful reading of the personal written records of Kingston's women religious, informed by gender analysis, reveals their role in the building of hospitals, schools, and orphanages, and their dedication to bettering the lives of the disadvantaged and indigent. These contributions aligned with the larger goals of the provincial government and ecclesiastical authorities. Kingston's women religious established multiple institutions, faced unspeakable risks to their health, and overcame overt anti-Catholicism in carrying out and expanding the city's social services.