Sisters and staff at the 2025 Founders Day celebration on December 12, 2025.
On December 12, 2025, Providence Village welcomed Sisters, staff, and board members for our third annual Founders Day celebration—an important tradition that brings our community together to honour our founders, the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, and to reflect on their enduring legacy of service.
Founders Day is a moment of reflection and gratitude. It reminds us why Providence Village exists: to carry forward the mission the Sisters began in 1861, when four Sisters arrived by train from Montreal to Kingston to respond to the needs of the community. Providence Village was created by the Sisters for this very purpose—to ensure their work of compassionate care and service will continue into the future.
Providence Village President & CEO Laurie French opened the celebration by recognizing the Sisters’ generations of leadership and generosity. Board member Sandra Carlton—who is also the board designate for the Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario (CHSO), Providence Village’s sponsor organization—spoke to the responsibility shared by staff and board to steward this legacy thoughtfully and faithfully. “We want to recognize and say thank you to the Sisters, who have dedicated their lives to compassionate service in response to unmet needs,” Sandra shared. “It’s because of their unparalleled vision of creating a supportive community—the Village—that we are gathered here today to celebrate their contributions. Now it is our turn to build on their history. It’s up to each of us to live Providence Village’s mission and values so that we can carry on their story.”
A highlight of the event came when Laurie unveiled a new painting of the Motherhouse by Kingston artist Lucy De Sousa. Commissioned by Providence Village to honour the Sisters, the artwork captures the beauty of the home and property that the Sisters lovingly stewarded for nearly a century—and have now entrusted to the community through Providence Village. “This painting stands as a reminder of their vision for Providence Village,” Laurie explained. “That the Motherhouse—the heart of their congregation for so long—will continue to serve those in need long after the Sisters are no longer in residence here. It is a legacy we have the privilege to carry on.”
A painting of Providence Motherhouse by Lucy De Sousa.
Following the unveiling, Veronica Steinberg, Archivist for the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, guided the audience through the story of the Motherhouse, not simply as a building, but as a living expression of the Sisters’ mission. She began by asking, “What is a Motherhouse?”, describing it as the official home base of a congregation—its centre for leadership, formation, and administration. From this home base, the Sisters administered missions not only across Kingston, but throughout six provinces across the country and in Guatemala and Peru. Yet, she noted, the Motherhouse property itself played a significant role in the Sisters’ ministries, shaping not only their lives but the lives of countless people in the community.
Veronica described how the Sisters purchased the 30-acre Heathfield property in 1930 with the intention of establishing a novitiate, and built the Motherhouse, which opened in 1932. Throughout the decades that followed, the Motherhouse evolved in response to community needs. During World War II, when the Sisters’ St. Mary’s of the Lake Orphanage was requisitioned for military use, the orphans were welcomed onto the Motherhouse property, where they lived until 1964. Veronica also shared stories of the Sisters’ entrepreneurial initiatives—such as their vestry department, where they made priests’ vestments and altar linens, and their altar bread department, where communion bread was prepared on-site —to help fund their missions and ministries.
Sisters making altar bread at Providence Motherhouse.
The Motherhouse also played a role in the broader Kingston community. From 1953 to 1957, the property temporarily housed St. Paul’s Catholic School to accommodate an overflow of students while a new local school was being built. In the 1960s, the Sisters expanded the Motherhouse to support their growing congregation, and later transformed part of the space into the McKinley Centre, a group home for women with developmental disabilities that operated from 1975 to 1997. These ministries, along with the founding of the Providence Associates of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul and the Providence Centre for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation—both founded at the Motherhouse and are now part of the Providence Village community—demonstrated the Sisters’ ability to respond creatively and compassionately to emerging needs.
Sisters and volunteers holding a banner created as part of their advocacy work with Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.
Veronica also highlighted powerful moments in the property’s history that echo the mission of Providence Village today. During major renovations at Providence Manor in the 1980s, 38 residents lived at the Motherhouse for three years—a foreshadowing, perhaps, of Providence Care’s redevelopment of the long-term care home that is now underway on the Village property. She also recalled the Motherhouse’s role during the 1998 ice storm, when the Sisters offered their space as an alternate emergency shelter for 46 community members, who lived at the Motherhouse for nine days. These stories underscored a long-standing willingness by the Sisters to open their home in service to others.
The Sisters’ commitment to environmental stewardship also took root on the Motherhouse grounds. In the late 1990s, the Sisters began organic gardening, built a greenhouse, and established a Heirloom Seed Sanctuary—tending rare seed varieties for 20 years before donating the collection to the Kenhté:ke Seed Sanctuary and Learning Centre and to the Kingston Area Seed Saving Initiative (KASSI) in 2019. Their prison ministry, which brings inmates from a local low-security institution to attend mass at the Motherhouse chapel, continues today thanks to the dedication of Sisters and volunteers.
Seeds as part of the Sisters’ Heirloom Seed Sanctuary.
Throughout its history, the Motherhouse has continually adapted—physically, spiritually, and operationally—to meet the needs of the time. This spirit of adaptation continued, when in 2017, the Sisters began their most ambitious transformation for the Motherhouse: the creation of Providence Village. In doing so, they ensured that the Motherhouse property would continue to serve the community long after their congregation comes to a close, carrying forward their legacy of service, justice, care, and compassion for generations to come.
This rich and varied history illustrates how profoundly the Sisters’ mission has shaped Kingston. Their legacy lives on at Providence Village, woven into every aspect of our shared work. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s celebration, and to all Sisters, staff, board members, and partners who continue to uphold this remarkable legacy. Together, we honour the Sisters’ story—and ensure their mission endures for generations to come.