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PREFACE

In The Autumn of 1992 I was asked by The Sister General of the Sisters of Service, Frances Coffey, if I would consider writing the biography of Sister Catherine Donnelly, the founder of their order, the first English-speaking Canadian women’s Roman Catholic religious order.

I was not completely unfamiliar with the Sisters of Service, as I had come across tantalizing references to their work during my research on my Ph.D. dissertation on Catholic Social Thought in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Henry Somerville was editor of the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Register, from 1931 to 1954, and in that period wrote articles and editorials promoting this new group of women religious who had been freed from the confining traditions of the cloister in order to undertake the traditional good works of charity, nursing and education for the immigrants and Canadian citizens, particularly those living in the West in isolated settlements. The majority of the recent immigrants who were staking out prairie homesteads lived too far from the cities where these services were being given by the traditional Roman Catholic religious orders.

I was attracted to this project because I had long believed that the role played by the Roman Catholic women’s religious orders in the educational, social and religious history of Canada has been largely neglected by the historians. As well, the glimpses I had gained of Catherine Donnelly from my reading indicated that she was a fascinating person; someone who was unafraid to question traditional attitudes and customs in order to accomplish a greater good. Her recognition that new methods must be used by her Church to minister to human needs in the twentieth century seemed to exemplify in a practical way the theology underpinning the Papal Social Encyclicals.

Sister Coffey invited me to come to the motherhouse in Toronto to meet their archivist, Sister Catherine Schmeltzer, and to see if their archives contained sufficient material on which to base a biography. At our meeting, Sister Schmeltzer explained that while many of the papers pertaining to Catherine Donnelly’s life had not survived her many transfers from place to place, some valuable letters were still turning up. A search was being conducted in all of their mission houses, and requests for relevant information had been made to the various dioceses where Catherine had worked. As Sister Schmeltzer had joined the Sisters of Service in 1938, I concluded that she herself would also be an invaluable source of information.

When I indicated that I would be interested in undertaking the biography, Sister Coffey said that the order’s only stipulations were that the book was to be centred on the life and work of Catherine Donnelly, rather than the order itself, and that the book was not to be written as a memorial but as an examination of a life in which the techniques and standards of a historian would be applied. She hoped that sufficient information could be located to reveal the complete story of Catherine’s long life of ninety-nine years, and assured me that all the order’s records would be made available, including those which dealt with its finances and personnel. I was also given permission to interview members of the order privately, particularly those who had worked directly with Catherine Donnelly.

I have found this to be a stimulating professional assignment, made all the more challenging because complete freedom of access to the records allowed me to tell the story as I saw it emerging. At no time did I encounter any attempt to influence my conclusions. When I required additional information on events or people that was not in the written records, it was willingly given to me by the many sisters I questioned, and with complete candour. The only direct comment on the text which I received was when I requested Sister General Frances Coffey, her successor Sister General Anna McNally, and the Council of the Sisters of Service, to peruse it for clarity and accuracy of fact or definition.

Chief among the members on whose expertise and memory I had to rely was the late Sister Catherine Schmeltzer, who died suddenly only two months before the last chapter was completed. Her devotion to her work as an archivist, her sparkling sense of humour, her thoughtful answers to my innumerable questions, and her unfailing kindness made writing this story a joyful personal and professional experience.

Sister Catherine Donnelly’s story has been written for the general reader, of any or of no religious persuasion, who is interested in the history of Canada, and in the struggles of the peoples from every country who settled this land and battled its harsh climate to make homes in a new environment. To succeed against poverty, adversity and loneliness they needed help in a multitude of ways. This book is about them and about one woman’s attempt to break the bonds of tradition so that she and the order she founded could provide for their educational and spiritual needs. In so doing she became a pioneer in extending the role of women in Roman Catholic religious orders.

The title of this biography, To Do and To Endure, is taken from the second verse of the hymn, “Breathe On Me Breath of God,” which is common to both Roman Catholic and Protestant hymnaries.

Jeanne R. Beck

St. Patrick’s Day, 1997