The Right Reverend Remigius Gaulin, Bishop of Kingston
In 1840, Remigius Gaulin was appointed the second bishop of Kingston and he found the poor were largely abandoned in the community. Among the citizenry were hundreds of Irish immigrants, many of them Catholics, who settled in the town following the completion of the construction of the Rideau Canal.
In 1841, Bishop Gaulin requested that Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal allow the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph at Montreal to send Sisters to care for the sick, the poor and the needy saying that he “must have the Sister Hospitallers to care for my poor sick and homeless orphans…”
Bishop Bourget approached the RHSJs asking for their assistance but warned them that, should they found a mission in Kingston, they would be facing a great challenge.
Sister Amable Bourbonnière, Foundress and First Superior of the Hotel Dieu, Kingston
The Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph of Montreal were willing to accept this challenge to found a new mission in Upper Canada and held an election in November 1841.
Sister Amable Bourbonnière was elected to be the Superior of the new foundation. Their plans, however, were put on hold for four years as Kingston was named capital of the United Province of Canada in 1841 and housing became scarce.
Indenture of sale of lots 11 and 12, Brock Street, Kingston, “in trust for an Hospital and Orphan Asylum”, (29 May 1845)
At the end of 1844, the path was opened for the RHSJs to begin planning their new foundation in Kingston once again as the Legislature of the Province of Canada moved to Montreal, making real estate available to rent or purchase, and a wealthy Montreal woman, Mme. Josephine Perras, had recently dedicated herself and her fortune to the building of the Hotel Dieu of Kingston.
In May 1845, Sister Bourbonnière travelled to Kingston along with Mme. Perras and Mr. Laframboise, a trusted friend of the RHSJs of Montreal, to tour the city and to secure accommodations for the new Hotel Dieu.
They were able to find two limestone buildings for sale on Brock Street located near the centre of the town and close to the Cathedral which was still under construction at the time. The Ecclesiastical Corporation purchased the two one-fifth of an acre lots, along with their buildings and outbuildings “in trust for an Hospital and Orphan Asylum” for the price of £750.
The original Hotel Dieu, Kingston: the first Monastery (223 Brock St) and Hospital (229 Brock St).
Bishop Patrick Phelan greeting the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph as they arrive in Kingston
Sister Bourbonnière, the foundress and first Superior, along with Sisters Huguette Claire Latour, Louise Davignon, and Emilie Barbari, and accompanied by Mme. Perras, travelled by steamer departed Montreal on September 1st, 1845, dressed in secular clothing.
They arrived on September 2nd, staying with the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame who had been in Kingston since 1841, before moving into their Hospital building (now 229 Brock St) on September 4th.
Extract from the Annals of the Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston describing their first patient and the conditions the Sisters were working in.
Drawing dating from 1943 showing a Sister treating the first patient at the Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston, "Mrs. James Delaney".
The Sisters wasted no time getting to work. On the day they moved in to their hospital building, September 4th, they admitted the first orphan: a six-year old girl named Mary Anne Burns who would remain with them for nearly five years.
According to the Sisters' Annals, they saw their first patient on September 7th, "a very sick woman".
Other accounts relate that the first patient was seen at the hospital on September 12th and was named Mrs. James Delaney.
Notice posted in the Chronicle and Gazette beginning on Sept 16, 1845, announcing that the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston was open. Similar notices were placed in the Kingston Herald and The British Whig and they continued to appear as late as December 1846.
After Mrs. Delaney, many more patients followed. The Hotel Dieu was the only hospital in Kingston at the time—Kingston General Hospital would not open until November 1845—and, having only eight beds in the two wards, they were often at capacity, and found themselves in the position of sometimes having to turn patients away.
Despite its small size, in its first two years, the Hotel Dieu Hospital saw 294 patients. Of those, 270 were discharged and 24 died in the Sisters’ care.
It was clear from early on that the hospital would need to expand to meet the need for medical care in the community.
