Our First Superior Rose to the Challenge

February 7 is the anniversary of Sister Delphine Fontbonne's death. Sister Catherine McCarthy pays tribute to her founder's courageous spirit and flexibility of character.

In 1851, at the age of 37, Sister Delphine Fontbonne found herself in the strange city of Toronto. She was the Superior of a small group of younger women. They were cut off from their American motherhouse and plunged into a noisy, crowded orphanage of 23 Irish children.

These little ones had recently lost their loving parents and family to the typhus epidemic. They were homesick, ill and terrified. Sister Delphine could relate.

A Stranger Far From Home

Sister Delphine had been monastically trained for three years in France as a Sister of St. Joseph. She'd had 15 years of community living in St. Louis and Pennsylvania. She and her fellow Sisters had attended to those in need. Sister Delphine had always been supported by a large group of adult women.

But now, she was the sole leader of three young Sisters who looked to her to provide order and industry in Toronto. Sister Delphine wasn't even proficient in English.

One small lad looked up at her, addressing her in a strange language Delphine did not recognize. Sister Bernard answered him, then turned to Delphine. "He speaks Irish. If they're from Galway or Cork, they speak only Irish."

Mother Delphine tried not to look flabbergasted.

Total Transformation

A volunteer, Matthew O'Connor, left a written account of the Sisters' arrival. "Oct. 7, 1851, while I was engaged in repairing the south wing, I had the privilege of welcoming Mother Delphine and her three companions: Sister Bernard, Sister Martha and Sister Alphonsus.

"Hardly had they placed their bonnets and shawls in the front room when the Superior was inspecting, arranging and ordering from the dormitories right down to the cellar.

"It was not long before a complete transformation was taking place. One of the front rooms on the ground floor was turned into a most inviting little chapel."

Never Done Before
Delphine's community in Toronto found themselves doing what Sisters of St. Joseph had never done before. With hungry orphans to feed, the Sisters begged for food. Butchers and bakers were as generous as they could afford to be. Farmers coming into Toronto on market day began to leave their unsold produce at the orphanage door.

Sister Delphine also sponsored groups of women in need from Ireland twice a year. These women helped with the children and around the house until they found domestic positions. The women and the Sisters also made shirts and socks, which they sold as a badly needed source of revenue.

Alone

The new Irish novices found the French-speaking Delphine serious, concentrated and prayerful. They wondered why she couldn't, for heaven's sake, smile once in a while?
Delphine had no company. The novices had each other.

The Spirit of Delphine Fontbonne

In late January 1856, Mother Delphine, ill herself, visited a woman distraught at the death of her husband. On January 29th she attended the profession of three sisters and the reception of three others in the convent chapel only to return to bed and die nine days later. Her body succumbed, but her spirit never wavered.

In a recent Globe and Mail article about the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Sister Mary Alban Bouchard CSJ was telling of living in a destroyed area and sleeping on the ground next to hundreds of other Haitians.

I thought of Delphine during the typhus epidemic in Toronto. "Well," I told myself, "Delphine's spirit never died. It's around here yet."

By Sister Catherine McCarthy CSJ