The First Sisters along with their Superior General in St. Jacques  - de – l’Achigan Quebec. 

Courtesy of The Sisters of St Ann Archives

Sister Mary of The Sacred Heart (1830-1906)

Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart (Salomé Valois from Vaudreuil, Québec), was one of the first Sisters named to Victoria in response to Bishop Demers' request for Sisters in 1857.  Devotedness and sincerity, genuine charity and profound humility were the characteristics which warranted choosing Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart as first Superior in Victoria

Sister Mary Lumena (1833-1912)

Sister Mary Lumena (Virginie Brasseur ) attended a rural school in Québec prior to entering The Sisters of St Ann. When the call for volunteers for the Victoria mission was announced in 1857, she was accepted to go to Vancouver Island. She began her active ministry by gathering the children about her to tell them about God, on the very first Sunday the Sisters were in Victoria. For this reason she is honoured as the first nun to teach Christian Doctrine in British Columbia.

Sister Mary Of The Conception (1826-1915)

Sister Mary of the Conception (Mary Lane), born in Rawdon, Québec, of Irish parents, was assigned to Victoria to teach and to visit the sick in their home.  The school consisted of a few slates, some readers, and other equipment, set out on a trestle-like table in the little log cabin convent. Twelve pupils came to school the Monday after the Sister's arrival. St. Ann's Academy dates from that day - June 7th, 1858.

Sister Mary Angele (1828-1898)

Sister Mary Angèle (Angèle Gauthier from Vaudreuil, Québec) merited the title of the "good " Sister.  She loved to sing.  Children welcomed her when she appeared, for she was sure to have a hidden apple, or orange, or bit of candy for them.

Sister Mary – de – la Providence (1836-1904)

Mary Ellen McTucker was born in Ireland on October 2, 1836. She was well educated, and following her family’s move to Montreal, her desire to use her talents for the welfare of humanity and so she choose to enter The Sisters of St Ann. She arrived in British Columbia in 1859; it was under her guidance that the school expanded and the foundations for The Sisters of St Ann’ many ministries in St Joseph’s Province were laid.

Sister Mary Bonsecours (1834-1915)

Catherine Greff was born in Quebec in 1834 and knew her calling early in life. At the age of 14 she became an applicant and professed her three vows a month after her sixteenth birthday. In 1859 she arrived in Victoria with the intention of teaching music, but it was soon discovered that her strengths lay elsewhere. She took special charge of the many orphans entrusted to the Sisters’ care, and in 1876 she accompanied her charges to a new facility in Cowichan on south Vancouver Island. In 1886 she, along with two other Sisters, travelled to Juneau, Alaska to open a new hospital.