Daughters of Wisdom celebrate

French-founded order still serves around the world

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

The year was 1943 and Charlebois was a 19-year-old secretary with a federal government office in Ottawa. "I felt a voice inside me telling me I should become a sister," she recalled recently at her office in the congregation's Western province headquarters.

To make sure the call was real, Charlebois consulted with a former teacher, a Daughter of Wisdom, in her hometown of Sturgeon Falls, where she was born and raised, along with 11 brothers and sisters. The teacher confirmed to Charlebois that the call was genuine and the young woman joined the congregation in 1945. She made her perpetual vows two years later. The congregation's charism is education and health care and Charlebois chose health care administration.

After a year-long stint at a hospital in Montreal, the young nun was sent to the administration offices of her native Sturgeon Falls. Ten years later, in 1959, Charlebois arrived in Castor to serve as assistant in the accounting department at Our Lady of the Rosary Hospital, a hospital the congregation had founded in the early 1910s. In 1973, she became the hospital director and served in that position until her retirement in 1992. She now realizes retirement is usually a fictitious term in religious life, for in 1995 she was appointed regional superior of the congregation. But Charlebois wouldn't have it any other way. "I've been really happy as a sister," she said. "I have no regrets."

As Western Canada superior, she oversees a total of 16 sisters, six in Edmonton and 10 in Red Deer, where the order has a retirement home. The congregation pulled out of B.C. and Saskatchewan a number of years ago.

The Daughters of Wisdom has a great history behind it, but as Charlebois hints, its time may be over, at least in this part of the world. The order in Western Canada is just a shadow of its former self, with most members well beyond retirement age and no new recruits since the 1960s. "In the West, (the congregation) will probably disappear," Charlebois predicted. "I doubt there will be new recruits. We actually don't expect any replacements. Most recruits are in (Third World) countries. I guess God has other plans for us."

The Daughters of Wisdom in Alberta no longer teach and very few are still active in health care. In April, Charlebois will transfer ownership of the Castor Hospital to the Catholic Health Care Association, thus ending the congregation's last link to health care in Western Canada.

With education and health care out of their hands, most active Daughters of Wisdom now work with refugees, the inner city poor, young people and women and children in need. They also give great sums of money to groups and associations that help the poor and the sick throughout Western Canada. In recent years, a number of lay "associates," both men and women, have joined the sisters in their mission and prayer life.

The Daughters of Wisdom were founded in 1703 by Marie-Louise Trichet in collaboration with Louis-Marie de Monfort, a zealous and prophetic priest. Born of a wealthy family in 1684 in Poitiers, France, Marie-Louise was just 17 when she met Monfort.

"I like the spirituality of the congregation and the simplicity of our way of life." - Sr. Claire Charlebois

The shy woman who dreamed of becoming a cloistered nun, chose instead to share the misery of the sick, homeless and destitute in the Poitiers hospital, where she lived for a time as "a poor person among the other residents."

The congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom grew fast. In the first 46 years, it spread its branches to 37 new hospitals in Western France. By the end of the century, more than 650 young women had dedicated their lives to serving the medical and literary needs of the French poor. In the late 1700s, the country was ravaged by the French Revolution, with the new government abolishing all religion in the land. Religious congregations were banned and persecuted, their buildings confiscated and sold. In 1894, four Daughters of Wisdom were executed by guillotine, 10 were massacred and 19 died in jail, worn out by mistreatment.

After the end of this chaotic period in history, the congregation began to grow again, answering to the needs of society by opening orphanages, institutions for the deaf and blind, caring for the mentally challenged and the aged. Marie-Louise Trichet, the foundress, died in 1759 and was beatified by Pope John Paul on May 16, 1993.

For some 100 years now the Daughters of Wisdom have been international in their work. They first expanded in Europe, then to the Americas, arriving in Montreal in 1884. They immediately opened an orphanage there.

Later, many new foundations sprung up in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick. There are also Daughters of Wisdom in 30 different countries, including Haiti, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Madagascar, Zaire, India and the Philippines.

The congregation arrived in Alberta in 1904 and soon began a boarding school in Red Deer for the children of rural Alberta who had no schools then. For the next 60 years this school served families in the area, providing academics from Grades 1 to 12, the arts and Christian values.

In 1911, the congregation arrived in Castor, where they founded and operated Our Lady of Rosary Hospital as well as a private school. They served there for 91 years. The sisters also worked untiringly with aboriginal people in northern Alberta for 24 years, mainly on the Whitefish Lake Reserve, where they started and operated a day school.

The congregation also taught and provided health care in Calgary, 1911, Ponoka, 1962, Grouard, 1963, Slave Lake, 1959 and Marten River, 1963. They also offered summer catechism in several other areas, including Evergreen, Rocky Mountain House, Bashaw, Stettler, Olds, Innisfail and Didsbury. In the mid-1950s they began operating the isolated Outpost Hospital in Leoville, Sask., providing medical and nursing staff and worked tirelessly for the next 23 years to improve health conditions in the community.

In 1966, they opened the congregation's central administration at 3820-114 St. The large, two-storey brick building has 16 bedrooms and used to house at least 60 sisters. Now it is home to only six sisters, including Charlebois, the superior. Over the past almost 100 years, 203 Daughters of Wisdom have served in Western Canada.

Many sisters left the order after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. But the thought of leaving never crossed Charlebois' mind. "I was too loyal to the order and to the Church," she smiled. Not only that, Charlebois approved of the reforms and was truly in love with religious life. She still is. "I like the spirituality of the congregation and the simplicity of our way of life. We have a very rich prayer life. And I love living in community with other sisters."

Currently, there are more than 2,300 Daughters of Wisdom around the world, including just over 400 in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. They are all proudly preparing to mark their congregation's 300th anniversary.

In Edmonton, a celebration Mass will take place Feb. 2 at noon at St. Thomas More Church in city's southwest. Sacred Heart Church in Red Deer will also hold a celebration Mass on Feb. 2.

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