Born September 8, 1909, Glenallen, Ontario. Died July 12, 1998, Toronto, Ontario. Addie's was from one of the many Black farming communities in Ontario. During the Great Depression of the 1930's Addie moved to Toronto and worked as a servant and then as a dressmaker. While working she attended night classes at Central Technical School. Addie also attended the medical Missionary College and the Toronto Bible College graduating in 1945.In 1944 she became a deaconess with the British Methodist Episcopal Church as was assigned to serve in Africville, Nova Scotia. She would also serve in Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto. In 1951 She became the 1st ordained Black woman in Canada. She served in North Buxton, St Catherines, Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, Ontario. The Ontario Black History Society awards annually the Rev. Addie Aylestock Award during Black History Month.  Source: Addie Aylestock . David Spencer Educational Pages (accessed December 2011); The Black History in Canada, Historica; Canadian Encyclopedia, online.  (2020)

Born 1870, Ireland. Died 1962. In 1893 she was the 1st unmarried woman Anglican Missionary sent to the Canadian Yukon. She arrived from Ireland in 1893 and went directly to Forty Mile Creek, Yukon.  She would marry Reverend R.J. Bowen who arrived in the Yukon in 1895. In 1897 the couple were recalled from Alaska to go to Dawson City, Yukon Territory. Here they built the 1st log church, St. Paul’s. In 1899 Rev. Bowen became ill with typhoid fever and had to return to England to recover. On  August 1, 1900 he was back, this time serving in Whitehorse, Yukon. He held services in a tent until a new log church was built in October. The original log church is now a museum. By May 1903 he became ill again forcing the couple to leave the far north, serving instead in Nanaimo and Ladysmith, British Columbia. They finally settled in London, Ontario. Source:  Five Pioneer woman of the Anglican Church in the Yukon. Anglican Church of Canada, Women’s Auxiliary Yukon Diocesan Board, 1964. ; I wish the men were half as good. Gender constrictions in the Canadian North-Western Mission Field 1860-1940 by Myra Rutherdale. Online (Accessed December 2013)

 Sister Ethelberta

née Elsie Burnstein. Born  September 16, 1900 Frankfurt, Germany. Died March 2, 1988. She took her religious vows in 1923 with the Sisters of Precious Blood. She served her 1st years in The Netherlands. In 1951 she led her order to Canada and founded St Bernard’s Convalescent Hospital in North York, Ontario. In 1958 the hospital went public and Sister Ethelberta served as hospital administrator until she retired in 1982.

née French. Born January 30, 1846, Monivea, Galway, Ireland. Died November 30, 1921. In 1885 she traveled to the Canadian far north Fort McPherson to meet her fiancé, the Rev. Thomas Henry Canham (1852-1947). The famous Riel Rebellion would delay her trip for a whole year. In 1888 the young missionaries were transferred to the area that would become the Yukon Territories. They crossed the rocky mountains by dogsled, open skin boats and barge towed by a river steamer. They would work here in the Yukon for 30 years. The built a schoolhouse in 1892, the oldest known standing structure remaining in Fort Selkirk. Mail came once a year, if weather allowed. The cold was so severe they could not sit for even a meal. Charlotte’s health became poor and the couple eventually retired to Toronto, Ontario. Source: Herstory, the Canadian woman’s Calendar 2008. (Coteau Books, 2007) Suggested reading: Five Pioneer women of the Anglican Church in the Yukon. Anglican Church of Canada Women’s Auxiliary Yukon Diocesan Board, 1964.

Born 1864, Prince Edward Island. Died October 18, 1905, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Lavina was a member of the Methodist Women’s Missionary Society in which she chose to work and serve. In 1890 she relocated to British Columbia and worked as Matron of Coqualeetza Missionary School at Sardis in the Fraser Valley. About a year after she became Matron the school was destroyed by fire. She remained to care for students while the new school was opened in 1894 under the name of the Coqualeetza Industrial Institute. In 1895 she was back in her home province of Prince Edward Island where she worked at the Crosby Girl’s School Home. In 1896 through 1902 she was in Port Simpson, British Columbia at a residential school for Aboriginal children. Her goal was to train good Christians and home makers saving the children from what she viewed as an unhealthy indigenous culture. In this era there was no consideration given to the beliefs of aboriginals. Lavina wrote of her work in various Methodist publications. Source: DCB  (Accessed April 2014)

née Martin. Born July 11, 1887, Manitoba. Died October 2, 1958, Minto, Yukon. Kathleen trained as a teacher in Manitoba. As a young woman she moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where she found office work. She applied and fought to be accepted as an Anglican Church missionary. Single woman were not easily accepted for such positions. In 1916 she moved to Fort Selkirk to teach only to find just two students! In 1929 she married Alexander Coward, a local trader and trapper.  She detested the last name so she used the name Cowaret. She traveled to camps tending the sick and as a licensed lay reader to minister to all who would listen. She worked with the local aboriginal population endearing herself to them by learning their language. In 1955 she was elected as the Yukon Diocese representative to the Anglican General Synod.In 1958 she received a Dominion Life membership in the Anglican Women’s Auxiliary and accompanied Bishop and Mrs. Greenwood to England. She became ill on returning to Canada and went directly to hospital. During her time in Fort Selkirk she made films of the area. These films have been deposited the National Archives of Canada. Her gravestone is engraved with the name Kathleen Coward. Sources: Five Pioneer Women of the Anglican Church in the Yukon. Anglican Church of Canada, Women’s Auxiliary, Yukon Diocesan Board 1962; A Guide to Who Lives Beneath Whitehorse Cemeteries. Online accessed 2019..

Mother Mary Francis

Born June 7, 1794. Died August 1, 1866. Marie Louise joined the religious order of Saint Elizabeth Congregation of Notre Dame. She was a teacher of repute. In 1849 she became Mother Superior of her order. 27 missions were under her management and she opened five more. Source: Andrée Désilets, “DORVAL, MARIE-LOUISE, Sainte-Elizabeth,” in EN:UNDEF:public_citation_publication, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 20, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/dorval_marie_louise_9E.html.

Sister Mary Anastase

Sister Marie du Sacré-Coeur

Born January 22, 1830. Died October 31, 1874, Montreal, Quebec. . When she entered religious orders she took the name Sister Marie d Bonsecoues. She was the founder and director of the Institution des sourdes-muettes de Montreal. She devoted her life to helping educated deaf and dumb girls. Source: Andrée Désilets, “GADBOIS, ALBINE, Marie de Bonsecours,” in EN:UNDEF:public_citation_publication, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 20, 2015,

Born August 19, 1910, China. Died April 24, 1993. Katherine was raised for her early childhood in China where her parents were missionaries. She returned to Canada for her higher education. She earned her BA in 1934 and went on to earn her MA, her degree in education and then earned a Bachelor of Divinity as well as a PhD in divinity. She was one of the 1st female students at Emmanuel College in Toronto. She was sponsored by the Women’s Missionary Society of the United Church to study for her doctorate in theology in India. She served as Dean of Studies and Librarian at the Canadian School for Missions and Ecumenical Institute. She wrote Servants of God in People’s China in 1962. Her portrait hangs in the Memorial Room of Trinity St Paul’s United Church on Bloor St., Toronto and the lane that runs behind this church has been named in her honour. Sources: Lois M. Wilson, I want to be in that number: Cool Saints I Have Known, Published by the author, 2014. ; Mary Rose Donnelly, Katherine: Katherine Boehner Hockin, a Biography, Winfield, B.C.; Wood Lake Books, 1992.

Born April 30, 1791, Québec. Died January 7, 1869. She answered the calling to become a nun in the order of the Congregation of Norte Dame in September 1809 . She would be appointed as the Superior of the order three times at a time of great expansion for the order itself. The order held education in high regard and expanded the knowledge of teaching. The sisters were well known as well trained teachers at a time when education of teachers was not strong nor a priority of the community.  Suggested resource: The Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto; University of Toronto ) Volume IX Pg 402-403.

Born 1879, St Andrew’s East, Quebec. Died St Andrew’s East, Quebec 1960. As a child she expressed her desire to become a missionary and took extra Mission Study Courses at school She interrupted her studies at McGill University in Montreal in 1905 and returned home to take care of her ill mother. She stayed at home for 16 years. When she was 40 in 1920 she set sail for China fulfilling her childhood dream of being a missionary. She worked as a Matron at the Canadian School for Missionaries under the Women’s Missionary Society of the Methodist Church (now the United Church of Canada) After a furlough in 1933 she returned to China for a second posting to work in Changqing City, China’s wartime capitol. She wrote home of her exploits to family and friend as well as providing generous reports to the WMS. Her writings give a view of China from the perspective of a more mature missionary, at a time of great change in the country. This area of Chinese history is just opening up to the interests of historians and her writings provide first hand accounts of life in an emerging China. She retired in 1940 and returned home to St Andrew’s East to care for an ailing family member. Sources: From the pages of three ladies: Canadian women missionaries in Republican China. By Deborah Shulman (MA Thesis, Concordia University, 1996) ;

Sister Mary Basilia

Born 1811, Ireland. Died October 27, 1870. Sister Mary Basilia of the Sisters of Charity arrived in Halifax in 1849to open the St Mary’s Girls School with 200 girls registered for free education. In 1850 the Board of School Commissions for the area recorded 500 students at the School. Sister Mary Basilia was also concerned with the adult illiteracy rate and established night classes for adults. At the same time she also cared for 20 orphans of immigrants who had died of ship fever during the strenuous ocean crossing. By 1854 St Mary’s Orphan Asylum had 16 youth under its care. She would become the first Mother Superior of the Canadian headquarters of the Sisters of Charity which was the only English speaking congregation of religious sisters in Canada. Today over 1400 sisters continue to serve across Canada. Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. X p 476-77.

Born August 1781, Ireland. Died October 8, 1865, Saint John’s, Newfoundland. In 1825 Belinda became Sister Mary Xavier of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Galway, Ireland. In 1833 she and for other sisters, were the 1st nuns to arrive in Newfoundland. The sisters had as a goal to open a school for orphan and poor girls. By 1844 the school had grown from 950 students to 1200 girls. Later boys would be allowed to attend classes as well. In December 1844 a convent was build for the school but was destroyed by a fie in June 1846. In 1850 a new convent and school was opened in Cathedral Square, Saint John’s. In 1853 Sister Mary Xavier was appointed Superior of the convent of Harbour Main. Source: Barbara J. Eddy, “MOLONY, BELINDA,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed January 30, 2015,

Sister Aimee or Sister

Sister Marguerite-Marie of Alacoque

Sister Saint Jean-de-Goto

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