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Mother Hannah Coome,
Founder of the Sisterhood
"After making her profession on 8 Sept. 1884 in Peekskill, Hannah founded the Sisterhood of St John the Divine in Toronto, taking up residence there at Bishop Strachan School, where her sister Rose Jane Elizabeth was principal. In December, Hannah and Aimée Hare occupied a converted house on Robinson Street, in a receptive parish known for its high-church traditions, and began work: meals for the poor, a dispensary, Bible classes, visitations, the provision of clothing, and sewing for churches."
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: Sarah Hannah Roberta (Coome) Grier; article by Murray W. Nicolson [read more here »]
Bibliography
Toronto Daily Star, 10 Feb. 1921
P. F. Anson, The call of the cloister: religious communities and kindred bodies in the Anglican communion (London, 1958).
A memoir of the life and work of Hannah Grier Coome, mother-foundress of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, Toronto, Canada (London, 1933).
Religious communities in the American Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Church of Canada (rev. ed., New York, 1956.
The Sisterhood of Saint John the Divine, 1884–1984 (4th revision, Willowdale [Toronto], 1984).
Recent events in the life of the SSJD community here » |
SSJD: A brief history
Hannah Grier Coome founds the order in 1884
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The Sisters' hospital in Moose Jaw, 1885 the field hospital opened by Mother Hannah and the work she and the Sisters did with the soldiers during the Second Riel Rebellion earned Mother Hannah and SSJD a medal from the Canadian Government for our work. |
The Sisterhood of St. John the Divine was founded in 1884 by a Canadian woman, Hannah Grier Coome. She grew up in Carrying Place and in Belleville, Ontario; married an architect; and went to live in England where her husband was employed by an engineering firm. While in England, Mrs. Coome came to know the Sisters of St. Mary, an Anglican community in Wantage. Soon after she and her husband returned to Canada in 1881, her husband died and she began to think about going back to England and joining the sisters at Wantage. (Before the 1880’s, there was no religious community for women in Canada, although there were many in England and the United States.)
A community in Canada
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Sisters Clare and Ethelwyn with children at an SSJD mission |
In the meantime a group of devout Anglican men and women in Toronto felt there would be great benefit in establishing a women’s religious community in Canada and so they formed a committee to begin raising funds to establish a sisterhood. When the committee learned that Mrs. Coome hoped to join the English Sisters of St. Mary in Wantage, they suggested that she stay in Canada instead and found a new community. Mrs. Coome came to believe this was a genuine call from God, and so she agreed. Since there was no community in Canada where she could go for her training, she went to an American community, the Sisters of St. Mary in Peekskill, New York, for two years.
In 1884 she made her vows and returned to Toronto, where several young women were waiting to join her in establishing the new community. Before they had a chance to settle in Toronto, however, they were called to go out west to Moose Jaw to nurse the soldiers in the Northwest Rebellion.
SSJD pioneers Toronto's first Hospital for women
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Some of the nurses who graduated from St. John's Hospital with Mother Dora |
On returning to Toronto in 1885, the sisters moved into a house on Robinson Street that had been acquired by the committee. Shortly after, they acquired the house next door, on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Robinson Street, where they opened the first surgical hospital for women in Toronto.
Since that time, our community has pioneered in training nurses, in convalescent care, and in rehabilitation; we have administered schools and an orphanage; worked with the mentally handicapped; ministered to the elderly; and worked with the poor in large cities and depressed rural areas. At different times in our history we have had houses in Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and New York state, as we have responded to Christ’s call to minister to the many different needs of God’s children.
Liturgical & ecumencial presence in the Church
In recent years our community has become active in several other areas of the church’s life. We have taken a leading role in liturgical renewal in the church by making active use of the Book of Alternative Services and other materials, some written by our own sisters (including hymns); and by active participation on the Hymn Task force and in contributions to the Book of Common Praise. We have become more active in praying and working for unity in Christ’s church, and various ecumenical groups meet regularly at the Convent. We strive for friendships with members of other faiths. And a number of our sisters are active in various Anglican and ecumenical organizations, including those working on issues of peace and justice.
As the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine grows into its second century, we pray that we may continue to be open to respond to the needs of the church and the world as God’s will is made known to us.
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