Thread by @rev_heather, Today we remember Mother Hannah Grier Coombs, foundress of @ssjdcanada, the order [...]

Today we remember Mother Hannah Grier Coombs, foundress of @ssjdcanada, the order of which I am an Associate. Her early life might not have suggested where she would end up.
(1/x)

Hannah’s father was a high church Anglican priest in Carrying Place, ON when she was born in 1837 (a year of significance in the story of both Upper and Lower Canada). She was the sixth child of her parents, who educated all their children equally.
(2/x)

At age 21, Hannah married Charles Coome, a civil engineer who worked for the Grand Trunk Railroad (later part of CN), but the couple moved to Britain two years later.
(3/x)

Always a faithful Anglican, Hannah was attracted to the Oxford Movement while living in the UK, both in the reclaiming of ritual in liturgy and in the emphasis on mission with those in the neighbourhood, especially those living in poverty.
(4/x)

Hannah became pregnant the year after they’d moved to England, but suffered a severe fall that caused a miscarriage and ended up with her recovering lasting several months.
The couple would not get pregnant again.
(5/x)

In 1876 Hannah and Charles returned to North America for his work, this time living in Chicago. However, Charles died a year later and Hannah was widowed at age 54.
One of her brothers lived in Chicago, and Hannah lived both him and his family for several years.
(6/x)

Hannah had learned the art of decorative embroidery while in the UK, where the work was primarily for church decorations and vestments. Now a widow, Hannah’s skills and artistry became how she made her living.
(7/x)

In 1881, Hannah was thinking about to England. She had sensed a called to enter a religious community. Anglican orders of monks and nuns were still fairly new, but she knew of the Community of St Mary the Virgin and thought about joining them as a sister.
(8/x)

She visited her sister Rose in Toronto that year (Rose was then principal of @BishopStrachan), and happened to meet the Rev. Ogden Pulteney Ford at a party, who introduced her to Georgina Broughall, a clergy spouse.
(9/x)

The two were part of a group who were working to establish a women’s religious order in Canada. High church folk themselves, they sought the gift of having Anglican sisters in Toronto, living lives rooted in prayer and in service to the community.
(10/x)

(This part of the story has always fascinated me. That a religious order was envisioned by a committee, who themselves weren’t called to lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but who saw the gifts in that way of life both for those living it and for those around them.)
11/x

Hannah worked with the group for two years, and they were led to a second woman, Elizabeth Aimée Hare, also called to religious life.
In 1882, Hannah and Aimée joined the Sisters of St Mary in Peekskill NY, where they entered formation for the religious life for two years.
12/x

Back in Toronto, the founding group continued the work of fundraising, so that the fledgling religious order could have a home when the two sisters returned. In many ways, these were the first Associates of the order that didn’t yet exist.
(13/x)

In September 1884, Hannah took religious vows, and she and Aimée returned to Toronto. They initially lived at Bishop Strachan School with Hannah’s sister Rose, but a home was purchased near St Matthias, Bellwoods.
(14/x)

The name of the new order, the Sisterhood of St John the Divine, was in part after the parish in England where Hannah had found such support during her accident, miscarriage, and recovery years earlier.
(15/x)

The order was formally recognized in a ceremony by the Bishop of Toronto on the Feast of St John, 1884.
Sister Aimée took her vows shortly thereafter and the new order began its work.
(16/x)

There was some opposition (not everyone thought there should be Anglican nuns), but the order’s life of prayer and service (primarily through nursing and education) soon won critics over.
(17/x)

The Sisters provided nursing support during the Northwest Rebellion in Saskatchewan, developed their own Rule of Life, and opened Toronto’s first surgical hospital for women’s health within five years.
(18/x)

Over the years, the Sisterhood has been in many places across Canada and in the GTA. St John’s Sideroad in @Town_of_Aurora and @stjohnsrehabfdn are named for the @ssjdcanada.
(19/20)

Mother Hannah retired at 79, and died on this date in 1921. A woman of faith, a woman of prodigious talents, we remember her today as an example of commitment to Christ, to a life of prayer, and to service in the world.
(20/20)

Latest Threads Unrolled: