Honouring Our Founding Women

Founders of the Sisters of St. Joseph by artist Julie Lonneman

Each year the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada provide a gathering for us, entitled S.A.I.L., which is an acronym for “Sojourners for Active Inclusive Love.”

During the gathering this year we focused on the first six courageous and faith-filled women, who in the year 1650 made a commitment to God and neighbour with the blessing of the Church.  While living among the people, they spread the good news of the gospel, in order to build bonds of relationship and respect among all. 

The seventeenth century saw the thirty-years war, the wars of religion and the great designs of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu with glittering palaces. In the wake of these events many suffering families were left in poverty because of injustice and violence.

The six faith-filled women in Le Puy, France varied in age.  As widows and single women, they had already been reaching out to the needy with acts of compassion.  Their names were Francoise Eyraud, Anna Vey, Marguerite Burdier, Anna Chaleyer, Clauda Chastel and Anna Brun. They had a desire for more.  On October 15, 1650 in Le Puy-en-Velay, a new form of apostolic religious life under the protection of St. Joseph, was given to these Christian women by Father Jean-Pierre Médaille, S.J. and Bishop de Maupas.  When it came time to sign the documents that would give a legal foundation to the community, only one of them could sign her name--Clauda Chastel. 

These amazing women were able to support themselves and their ministries by making lace in their kitchen sitting around the light of a candle at the end of their daily visits. They did not live the cloistered existence but divided the city and spent their days between prayer and the service of others.  As the community spread, the members adopted the clothes worn by widows in their locality which varied from town to country.  Their apostolic tasks were extremely varied and adapted to the needs of the people.

This new form of apostolic religious life was/is called the Sisters of St. Joseph.   We claim Fr. Jean Pierre Medaille, S.J., as our founder and spiritual guide.  His little design (in opposition to the great design of governing authorities) was to spread the gospel and build bonds of friendship with active, inclusive love. He stated that the Sisters were to draw love from its source, Jesus in the Eucharist.  The Eucharist was to be the model for this form of apostolic life; the women were to imitate its hiddenness, its humility and were to be entirely for God and the dear neighbour, as Jesus was.  

Spending time at S.A.I.L. observing our roots and the dedication and eagerness of women wanting to spread the gospel by living lives completely emptied of self, to be entirely for God and the dear neighbour, was inspiring and hopeful. Our world needs this kind of faith and dedication.

-Sister Elaine Cole, C.S.J.       

When Something Changes, Something Changes

A reflection on Orange Shirt Day 2026

On September 29, I went in for my weekly shift at St. Joe’s Café, a welcoming space that offers two meals daily operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph. At the Café we were remembering Orange Shirt Day on both the 29th and the 30th. Volunteers wore orange shirts. Our staff created a web with orange ribbons for people to write the name of someone they wished to remember. Just before opening, I was speaking to a volunteer at the front door. He was a former student of mine in high school some 40 years ago. In those days a few of the teachers and students, with the help of contacts in Moosonee, began to run a summer camp for the “Indian” children in the bush about 20 kilometers outside the town. Some relationships have lasted over these many years. He asked one question before we opened our doors. “Did you know anything about residential schools when we were there some 40 years ago?” we both shook our heads in some kind of disbelief that we knew nothing. Not a thing.

Some 13 years ago, First Nations people with the inspiration of Phyliss Webstad began commemorating Orange Shirt Day to remember the history of residential schools, to commit to changing the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples and recognize the harm created by the attempt to erase a culture.

On September 30 I was going for a noon time walk in a parklet that serves as a playground for a local school. It was around noon. Suddenly, across the parklet about 50 students between the ages of 6-8 began to race toward the swings and slides. Every one of them wore an orange shirt. The principal must have directed the teachers who reminded the students. The parents rummaged through drawers and found orange shirts. Some of them were specifically created for the day. Some were Halloween shirts or other team shirts. The point is they were all orange and people were intentional. I wondered what these children were learning about the history of other children. The counterpoint of carefree children reminded of other children who were not carefree was obvious. The hope that those running and jumping children and their teachers and parents inspired brought hope of an enlightened history moving toward real change.

And I was reminded that when something changes…something changes.

-Sister Margo Ritchie, csj

Image: chris robert @chris_robert/Unsplash

A Man Who Wore Out Too Many Pairs of Boots

Jean-Pierre Médaille was born in Carcassonne, France on Oct. 6, 1610 and was educated at the Jesuit College there.

On October 6, each year the Sisters and wider community of St. Joseph honour Father Jean Pierre Médaille, S.J.

Father Médaille, was born in 1610 in the beautiful walled city of Carcassonne, France. But walls never kept him enclosed. He was, in so many ways, a man who broke boundaries. As a young man he embraced his vocation as a Jesuit priest. After his time of formation and first ministries he was assigned to offering missions in the region of Le Puy en-Velay. His ministry required walking many miles across lovely, volcanic, hilly landscape. The story goes, and is recorded in the Jesuit archives in Rome, that he was reprimanded for “wearing out too many pairs of boots” in his endeavours!

During his travels Father Médaille met groups of women who wished to become nuns but were not eligible to due to Church discipline at the time that only permitted women religious to be in cloisters. In these women, Médaille recognized, however, an authentic vocation to religious life to be lived out in the world around them responding to the unmet needs of their time in places of squalor, violence, environmental destruction and profound disparities in wealth and poverty; a time not unlike our own.

Image: Oziel Gómez @ozgomz/Unsplash

Together, the women and Médaille encountered a mutuality of spirit – the realization of God in all things, a commitment to unity at the heart of Trinity, passionate service of the neighbour, a seeking of God’s call to “the more” rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola yet original and feminine in its expression. In his helping the women to form the Congregation, which became a reality in 1650, Médaille once again broke boundaries. So too did the first Sisters as they realized a whole new way of living religious life. One might almost say, they were born in dissent! Sister Mary Cresp, RSJ writes, “they demonstrated the characteristic of breaking boundaries into a new way of being”. That way continues to evolve for new times. The entire community of St. Joseph, sisters, associates, partners in mission and friends express gratitude to Father Médaille on this day.

In Médaille’s own words, “love Love and let Love love through you”, and maybe we too will wear out our boots, metaphorically, on that journey into God and to the dear neighbour together. 💞

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj