History and Mission
It is upon the request of Bishop Ignace Bourget, that the
Institute of the Misericordia Sisters was founded in Montréal, in 1848, by
Mrs Rosalie Cadron-Jetté, a widow.
" 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 " Const. #2
Extension of its Mission
Since its foundation, the Institute has steadily developed,
spreading out its services in Canada, the United States, in Africa for several
years and now in South America.
Rosalie Cadron-Jetté daringly took up the challenge of creating this Institute
in conditions of dire poverty and rejection from society.
Called to a specific ministry: helping single mothers during their
pregnancy or after and their children and opening maternities to all women, the Misericordia Sisters were
also gradually led to running general hospitals, besides homes for single mothers,
up to 1967 when they decided to withdraw from the hospital field as a congregation.
Interventions
Through their specific ministry, the Misericordia Sisters are
immersed in a disorderly world, where they endeavor to support deeply hurt persons,
for single mothers often live outside the normal stream of life and strive on for
mere survival. On this difficult road, they are offered accompaniment services,
to help them take stock of their own strength, so that they may, afterwards, regain
self-confidence and their trust in others.
This accompaniment is lived out through an authentic and true acceptance,
benevolent listening, real sharing in solidarity and collective promotion
projects, common struggle for greater social justice, particularly in the
defence of children's and mothers' rights.
The Misericordia Sisters work together with lay people who extend their action
with the same preoccupation of love, compassion and justice. Thus, those persons
make up a large spiritual and apostolic Family.
Administration
The community of the Misericordia Sisters is managed by a General
Council, the members are:
from left to right: Huguette Lavoie, s.m. - Assistant General
Monique Lallier, s.m. - Superior General
Lucie Pelletier, s.m. - Councilor and Treasurer General
Huguette Beauchamp, s.m. - Councilor and Secretary General