Jewels from Jane, Oct. 7

"Amazed at the work in Philadelphia, the Bishop of Toronto, Right Reverend Armand Charbonnel, asked for Sisters and obtained them. His Lordship, on his return from Rome in the autumn of 1851, visited Bishop Kenrick in Philadelphia. While there, he met Mother Delphine whose aunt, Reverend Mother Saint John [Fontbonne], was well known to the Charbonnel family. The Bishop, esteeming the young kinswoman as a valiant woman and capable of undertaking a work which he had in mind, begged the good Bishop Kenrick to allow her, with three other Sisters, to come to his aid in Toronto, where they arrived on October 7, 1851.

"In a letter addressed to Father Denavit, director of the Grand Seminary of Lyons, Bishop Charbonnel said, with reference to the Sisters of Saint Joseph:

'I could make use of one hundred of them at once, if I had them. The Sisters are called to do immense good here. They give everything but absolution.' Mother Delphine went from Toronto to establish a mission in Hamilton. Returning to Toronto to assist in caring for the victims of a typhus epidemic, she contracted the disease and died a victim of her devotion on February 7, 1856."

From Mother Saint John Fontbonne: A Biography translation adapted from the original French edition by a Sister of Saint Joseph Brentwood, New York

Jewels from Jane, May 2

On May 2, 1860, after three days of retreat, sisters representing all the houses in the dioceses of St. Louis, Toronto (Canada), Wheeling, Natchez, Albany and Saint Paul met at Carondelet to form a Congregation. These were all the communities of St. Joseph that had been founded directly or indirectly from Carondelet. There were no delegates from Buffalo, Philadelphia or Brooklyn; the bishops of those dioceses wanted their sisters to remain autonomous. The sisters who attended the meeting approved the basic structure of a new congregation. Bishop Kenrick presented a plan that recommended the erection of three provinces, with centers in St. Louis, Canada, and the eastern part of the United States, with provisions for forming new provinces according to need. The plan included details about the governance of the provinces, the role of the Superior General, the organization of novitiates and elections of General and Provincial Superiors. During the meeting, the delegates from Toronto decided to accede to the desire of their bishop and remain under diocesan jurisdiction.

In the end, the plan was adapted to propose three provinces: St. Louis, St. Paul and Troy (New York). By accepting the plan, the sisters committed themselves to support the process of seeking ecclesial approval to form a new Congregation. As their first official act, the sisters elected Mother St. John Facemaz as Superior General and then commissioned her to represent them in negotiations with Rome.

From “Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru”