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FROM FR. OAKLAND

During this month of July as we commemorate our nation’s independence 250 years ago, I am telling the stories of some of our Catholic heroes and heroines. Last week, it was some of our martyrs – saints and blessed and servants of God. This week, my favorite non-saint.

Esther Pariseau was born in Montreal. At the age of 20, in 1843, she joined a religious order founded in her hometown that very year: the Sisters of Charity of Providence. She would take the name of Joseph in honor of her father. A decade later, Bishop Blanchet of the new Diocese of Nesqually, as we were known then, requested some sisters from his home diocese. They arrived in the Oregon Territory, but almost everything was abandoned for the gold rush, and there was no welcome, so they left – and ended up starting a mission in Chile.  Bishop Blanchet made another request in 1856, and this time he went to Montreal to accompany the five sisters and make sure they arrived. Sister Joseph was appointed head of the mission. 

Contrary to the bishop’s instructions, the preparations had not been made by his vicar general for their arrival at Ft. Vancouver on the Columbia River. There was no place for them to live. They moved into the bishop’s attic, and Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart began construction of a convent. She learned woodcraft from her father, a cabinet maker. She would design and oversee the building of about thirty hospitals, orphanages, schools, and homes for the aged and infirm, from Portland to British Columbia, Port Townsend to Montana.