London-trained archivist helps Sisters of Charity catalogue 'moments of grace'
Exhibit opens in Saint John this weekend for 165th anniversary of order
A decade ago, Lex Stephenson was a high school student working the switchboard at the Sisters of Charity mother house on Cliff Street in Saint John.
"If there was a phone call for someone, I'd have to go over the PA and tell them what line to pick up," said Stephenson, laughing.
Now, at age 27, she has landed a bigger job, after earning a master's degree in museum studies from University College London and completing an internship at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This year, she's been tasked with curating the sisters' 165-year history, a milestone they're celebrating this weekend.
It's all part of a legacy project, as the order enters the last phase of what it calls its "downsizing."
The religious community has already divested most of its Canadian properties, including St. Joseph's Hospital.
And 10 funerals this year have reduced their number to 58.
To honour their accomplishments, Stephenson prepared a permanent exhibition at the Ruth Ross Residence nursing home, where some 40 nuns reside.
It depicts the founding of the order in 1854, when four women took their vows in Saint John, a city then rife with disease and overwhelmed by boatloads of destitute and starving immigrants.
One of the order's earliest accomplishments was opening a home for dozens of children who'd been orphaned by the cholera outbreak.
The Sisters of Charity expanded its reach up into northern New Brunswick and then moved westward, founding hospitals, schools and social programs that eventually stretched across seven provinces.
At the height of its operations in the 1950s, the order had about 400 members. Over the total course of its existence, about 1,000 women were drawn into service, said Stephenson.
"Before the government really stepped in and started building hospitals and having well-funded public education, the sisters did all those things," she said.
"Because they were needed desperately."
Monica Plante joined the order in 1955, fresh out of teachers college in Moose Jaw, Sask.
She said this weekend's anniversary is like a finale, marking the end of an era and a way of life.
"How can you expect a young girl to come in here and live with us old women," said Plante.
"Women nowadays have so many more opportunities. They can travel. They can do everything. They're not going to come to an institution."
In a friendly, practical tone, Plante said she and the other women came to the Sisters of Charity for a purpose.
"We did our work. In time we'll die out."
Stephenson said she combed through thousands of photos looking for images that revealed how people's lives were touched forever.
One of her favourites shows two Sisters of Charity members at a residence on Coburg Street, surrounded by babies whose mothers couldn't care for them, in the days before social assistance.
"I'm trying to get it right for the sisters themselves," Stephenson said as she worked to meet her deadline.
"I want to tell their story in a unique way but also so that they recognize it, so that it feels true to them … that this is what they did."