The order was to mark the milestone with a May 30 thanksgiving Mass with Cardinal Thomas Collins and a reception to follow. The Mass was to take place 100 years to the day the sisters celebrated their first Mass in what was then their new chapel.
The order’s roots date back to 1913 when the archbishop of Toronto, Neil McNeil, invited the order into his diocese to establish a home for children. In March 1913 the order’s Mother Foundress Blessed Maria Teresa Tauscher completed her journey from Milwaukee to Toronto leaving the sisters first footprints on Canadian soil.
“He was looking for sisters who would work among the Italian immigrants in Toronto and some of our sisters did speak Italian,” said Sr. Mary Rita McTague. “Bishop Neil McNeil took mother around in a carriage — actually a horse-drawn carriage — around town and they picked a property that actually belonged to the diocese on Harrison Street.”
Wasting no time Tauscher quickly began setting the wheels in motion establishing what was the Carmelite Girls Home. It eventually expanded to also include the Carmelite Day Nursery on Ossington Avenue in 1925. Before the end of April the home welcomed its first two children.
“In the early days there were many immigrants as there are today too,” said Sr. Francis Theresa Heffron. “These people when they came over they had to go to work to get on their feet so they would bring their children to us. (Also) in those days people didn’t live as long so there were orphans.”
Although the orphanage closed in 1964, the sisters continued to operate the day care until recently, indicating the end of an era for the order in Canada — but not the end of the order.
“A few years ago, I don’t remember what year it was, we had to give our day care over to (Udo’s) Little Prints ... to run because we were lacking in vocations,” said Sr. Veronica Dobson. “Our sisters are no longer in the apostolate of the children.”
But the Carmelites are still looking after seniors, just as they have since 1920 when the order’s first retirement home opened its doors in St. Catharines, Ont., where sisters and seniors continue to live together to this day.
Over the years the order opened two more senior residences, one in Medicine Hat, Alta., which has since been donated to Covenant Health, and the other in Mississauga, Ont., where the sisters who spoke to The Register reside.
In addition to taking care of those in need during the early and final years of life, the sisters also provided the parish mission work for more than two decades in Welland, Ont., until leaving the community in 1959.
Although the order’s presence in Canada is slowly shrinking, the sisters are hopeful they can recruit more vocations in the coming years.
“We do have a sister dedicated to bringing vocations to us,” said Dobson. “We do have vocations coming (but) they are not as great of numbers as they used to be.”
The May 30 celebration will be one of the events taking place to mark the centenary.
“We will be celebrating also with our people during the week because not all of our people can come to church so we are going to celebrate here,” she said. “We’re 100 years in Canada and we look forward to the next century.”