The Misericordia Sisters of Montreal
History and Mission
The Institute of the Misericordia Sisters has its head office in Montreal (Quebec). The Institute was founded in this city in 1848 by Mrs. Rosalie Cadron-Jetté, a widow. Rosalie was born in Lavaltrie, Quebec, in 1794. She married at the age of 17, had eleven children, six of whom reached the age of adulthood. She became a widow at the age of thirty-eight. While the family was living in Montreal, she dedicated her life to caring for expectant single mothers rejected by society. At the request of Bishop Ignace Bourget, she founded the community to perpetuate the work.
The very name “Misericordia Sisters”, received from Bishop Bourget, exemplifies the community charism of the Congregation. It identifies its particular spirituality and charts the course of its apostolic activity.
Extension of the Mission
Since its foundation, the Institute has steadily developed, spreading out its services in Canada, the United States, in the Cameroun, Africa for several years and now in Ecuador, South America.
Rosalie Cadron-Jetté inspired those who came after her to have the audacity and the courage that animated her to meet the challenge to found the said Institute.
The Misericordia Sisters have operated residences for single mothers and their children, maternity shelters open to all women, and general hospitals. In the early 1980’s they withdrew progressively from the field of hospital care and foster care homes and only kept daycare centres.
Involvements
Because of their particular ministry, the Misericordia Sisters are involved in a society where, to this day, female heads of single parent families feel disadvantaged. Very often, they live on the fringe of society and struggle to meet their needs and those of their child. On this difficult path, support services are made available to help them recover their autonomy, rediscover their strengths and regain their self-confidence and confidence in others.
The accompaniment they receive is lived in a spirit of authenticity, hospitality and compassionate listening. Then, with the desire to improve the situation, they take part in projects of solidarity and collective promotion in a struggle together for greater justice, especially for the rights of children and female heads of single-parent families.
The Misericordia Sisters work with lay people who extend the mission through their deeds in the same spirit of love, compassion and justice. These persons form a large spiritual and apostolic family called “The Misericordia Family”.