Émilie Gamelin

Rather than withdrawing into her grief, Émilie Gamelin decided to dedicate her life, her time, and her fortune to the most destitute. She began by taking care of a man with an intellectual disability (named Dodais), whom her husband had taken under his protection.

Her home quickly became a refuge for elderly women, the sick, orphans, the homeless, and those excluded from society. Faced with the constant influx of people in need, she opened several successive shelters in Montreal, notably the Asile de la Providence (also known as the "Yellow House"). She also became involved with the political prisoners (the Patriotes) incarcerated after the rebellion of 1837-1838, bringing them comfort and food.

Faced with the scale of the work, the Bishop of Montreal, Monseigneur Ignace Bourget, wished to perpetuate this action by founding a religious community. On March 25, 1843, the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Providence (today known as the Sisters of Providence) was officially established. Émilie Tavernier-Gamelin and her companions entered the novitiate. She pronounced her religious vows and became the first superior of the institute.

Under her leadership, the congregation developed rapidly, opening hospices, schools for the deaf and mute, orphanages, and hospitals. During the typhus and cholera epidemics that struck Montreal in the mid-19th century, Mother Gamelin and her sisters devoted themselves tirelessly to the sick. It was, in fact, during the cholera epidemic of 1851 that Émilie contracted the disease. She passed away on September 23, 1851, in Montreal, after only a few hours of illness.

The reputation of holiness of Émilie Gamelin was maintained well after her death. In 1960, on the occasion of the centenary of the work, the Sisters of Providence undertook historical research with a view to her canonization. The Office of the Cause of Émilie Gamelin was founded in 1961.

The cause was officially introduced in the Archdiocese of Montreal on May 31, 1981. After the examination of the historical and theological documentation (the Positio presented in 1989), Pope John Paul II recognized the heroic nature of her virtues and proclaimed her Venerable on December 23, 1993.

The path to beatification was realized through the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession. This involved the inexplicable healing of Yannick Fréchette, a 13-year-old Quebec boy suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In 1983, after a relapse, the rejection of a bone marrow transplant donated by his mother, and severe infectious complications, doctors considered his case hopeless. His family and the Sisters of Providence then invoked the intercession of Émilie Gamelin. The boy was completely and permanently healed.

After a diocesan inquiry conducted in 1997, the medical file was submitted to Rome. In 1999, the doctors of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously declared this healing scientifically inexplicable. On December 18, 2000, Pope John Paul II signed the decree recognizing the authenticity of this miracle.

Émilie Tavernier-Gamelin was solemnly beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 7, 2001, in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, in the presence of numerous Canadian pilgrims and the young man who had been healed.

The spirituality of Émilie Gamelin rests on an absolute trust in Divine Providence and on a deep devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. Her compassion was not mere philanthropy, but an encounter with the suffering Christ through the poor, whom she served with respect and love.

Today, the legacy of Émilie Gamelin is perpetuated through the congregation of the Sisters of Providence, who work in several countries (Canada, United States, Chile, El Salvador, Haiti, Cameroon, Egypt, Philippines). In Montreal, her memory is also honored by the Émilie-Gamelin square, located downtown, and by a statue created by the sculptor Raoul Hunter at the Berri-UQAM metro station.