For almost 200 years, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph limited their apostolate in America to Hotel Dieu Hospital in Montreal. This was a result of the realities of that period of time: limited human and financial resources, three destructive fires, conflict between the French and English in America and the conquest of Canada by England ; moreover, until 1822, the Sisters had to assure the services in the unique hospital in Montreal, a city that was expanding quickly. In contrast, by the middle of the 19th century, the Sisters of Hotel Dieu of St. Joseph of Montreal responded to the calls from other places in America. With great interior freedom and a profound faith, they ventured into the unknown...

KINGSTON (1845 – ) Hotel Dieu Hospital
In 1841 the Bishop of Kingston Diocese, Remi Gaulin, invited the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph at Montreal to send sisters to care for the sick, the poor and the most needy. This would be the first foundation since the arrival of the R.H.S.J. in Montreal in 1659. Sister Amable Bourbonnière was chosen as the foundress with Sisters Huguette Latour, Virginia Davignon, and Emelie Barbari to assist her. Housing at this time was at a premium in Kingston as this was the Capital of Upper and Lower Canada. When this changed in 1845, the Sisters departed Montreal by steamer on September 1 to begin the new Kingston Foundation.
They began their new ministry in two small houses at 229 and 231 Brock Street. In 1892 they needed larger premises and moved their small hospital to the former Regiopolis College located at 123 Sydenham Street. Throughout the years many additions and renovations were made to meet the changing needs of the community. As a result of health care restructuring in Ontario, Hotel Dieu Hospital is now an ambulatory care facility and the RHSJ ministry continue.

	2. St, Joseph Regional House (1957 - )
	In 1952 the English Generalate offices and Novices moved from Hotel Dieu to a new residence, Mount St. Joseph, on Franklin Lake, Perth Road, Ontario. On March 19, 1953 the English Generalate became St. Joseph Province. The need to be closer to Kingston was apparent and the Provincial Superior and Council approved the purchase of 16.3 acres in Amherstview just west of Kingston. The Sisters, Novices, and Infirmary Patients moved from Mount St. Joseph to St. Joseph Provincial House with the official Blessing and Opening taking place May 8, 1957.
The new Provincial House opened its doors to the small Amherstwiew community with Holy Family Chapel used by the parishioners until they were able to build Blessed Sacrement Church. It was from here that the R.H.S.J. Health System and Partners in Mission Food Bank had their beginnings. In June of 2001 St. Joseph Region was formed and the Provincial House was renamed St. Joseph Regional House.

3. R.H.S.J. Health System, Kingston (1984 - )
This Health System had its beginnings at St. Joseph Provincial House in 1984 with Sister Rosalia Cobey, R.H.S.J., its first President. This was the first Catholic Health System in Canada. The office moved to 225 Johnson Street in Kingston in 1988. The Health System provides consultation on governance and corporate affairs, ethics, finance, pastoral care, mission effectiveness, quality assurance, risk management and social services. Management Services and System Search are also available.

WINDSOR, Ontario (1888 - )

The Windsor Hotel Dieu was founded in 1888 at the request of Father J.T. Wagner and His Excellency, John Walsh of London, Ontario. Sisters Paquette, Lamoureux, Carriere, Boucher and Victoire went from our Motherhouse in Montreal to begin a new ministry of historic interest.

1. School and orphanage (1890 -1894)

It is of historic interest that the R.H.S.J. were asked first to teach the children of the Afro Americans who had come to Canada at the time of the underground railway. The RHSJ accepted this teaching mission but in 1894, left it to another religious congregation.

	2. Hotel Dieu Hospital (1890 - ) Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital (1993- )
	In February 1890 an hospital opened its doors to 100 patients. New wings have been added and renovations made to Hotel Dieu to make the hospital an up-to-date acucte care facility In 1993 our Windsor sisters entered into an alliance with the Salvation Army in what is known as the Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital.

3. Villa-Maria Residence, Windsor (1944- 2003
The care of the elderly was a concern and in 1944 the R.H.S.J. purchased the Murphy Dwelling on Riverside Drive to accommodate 15 senior residents. The three Sisters who left Hotel Dieu to take charge of the home, then known as Saint John the Evangelist Home, and now called Villa Maria Residence were Sisters Maria Guévin, Catherine Renaud and Stella Tremblay. As the needs increased the Sisters purchased an adjacent residence that could provide care for an additional 27 people. In 1950, supported by a Diocesan Campaign, the Sisters bought a neighbouring house and provided care to an additional 15 residents. The three separate homes presented disadvantages and the decision was made to begin construction of a new seniors’s residence. The official opening of the Villa Maria residence was held September 23, 1956. The attractive two-story building on the shores of the Detroit River has a capacity of 120 beds. In 2003, the Ontario government decided to close Villa-Maria Residence.

	CORNWALL, Ontario (1897 - )
	1. Hotel Dieu Hospital (1897 - )
	A newly appointed first Bishop of Alexandria, Alexander MacDonell, invited our Kingston Sisters to open a hospital in Cornwall. Five sisters went to open the mission : Sisters Margaret Donnelly, Ann Hopkins, Janet Macdonell, Margaret Powers and Katherine McCarthy. The first R.H.S.J. foundation out of Kingston’s Hotel Dieu became reality on February 9, 1897 at Cornwall when Hotel Dieu Hospital opened in the newly renovated home of Ontario’s first Premier, the Honourable John Sandfield Macdonald. A new hospital was soon after constructed on Water Street.
As community needs outgrew the facilities on Water Street, plans began for a new hospital. September 1955 saw the completion and official opening of a modern Hotel Dieu Hospital on McConnell Avenue on property bequeathed to the Sisters by the Allan Macdonell family. The original hospital on Water Street was renovated for chronically ill and renamed Macdonell Memorial Hospital. In 1989 a new 100-bed addition to Hotel Dieu Hospital was completed and chronically ill patients were moved from the Macdonell Memorial to the new Janet Macdonell Pavilion. The Hotel Dieu Hospital and St. Joseph’s Villa (see 3) make up what is now known as the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph Health Centre of Cornwall.

2. St. Paul’s Home, Cornwall (1898 - 1964)
In 1898, St. Paul’s Home opened for the care of elderly persons. At its most crowded the home had 100 elderly residents in four large dormitories. St. Paul’s Home was closed and demolished in 1964 because of fire hazards.

	3. St. Joseph’s Villa (1969 - )
	In 1969, the Sisters gave a home for seniors in Cornwall. St. Joseph’s Villa faces York Street and incorporated the former Hotel Dieu School of Nursing and the Nurses’s Residence. The first residents were admitted on August 27, 1969.

4. Marie de la Ferre Apartments (1962 - )
In 1992 the R.H.S.J. Housing Corporation converted the Macdonell Memorial Hospital Building, left empty when patients were moved to the Janet Macdonell Pavilion in 1989, into a non-profit apartment building for seniors. The $4.4 million project provided 59 apartments, six of them for disabled tenants. A covered walkway links the apartments to St. Joseph’s Villa.

	5. Nazareth Orphanage (1909-1950)
In 1909 two small houses adjacent to St. Paul’s Home were purchased and renovated to provide care for destitute children. Within the year, a large house was purchased to care for 24 children and by 1919, when Mrs. John McMartin donated her home on Second Street, up to 100 children at a time were being care for at Nazareth Orphanage. The building was destroyed by fire in 1950.

ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO (1945 - )
Archbishop James C. McGuigan of Toronto, Ontario, encouraged the R.H.S.J. of Kingston to accept a new mission and open the only Catholic hospital in the Niagara Peninsula in what is now the Diocese of St. Catherines (1958). Three sisters from Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston(Sisters Mary Immaculated Kennedy, Brennan and Callaghan) went to St. Catherines in 1945. In 1948 Hotel Dieu opened as a 29-bed maternity hospital in the Woodruff Mansion across the street from the current hospital building. In 1953 a new Hotel Dieu Hospital opened ont Ontario Street. Over the years, additions and renovations have been made to ensure Hotel Dieu is an up-to-date facility. Today Hotel Dieu is a community hospital providing surgical, medical and emergency care as well as several unique regional programs provided in both an inpatient and outpatient basis. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario. On August 30, 2000 Hotel Dieu changed its name to Hotel Dieu Health Sciences Hospital, Niagara.