ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses continuity and change within the Toronto convent academies and women's colleges of the Loretto Sisters and the Sisters of St Joseph. The twenty-first-century words would have had profound resonance with the members of Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) the Loretto3 Sisters, who journeyed from Ireland, and the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph (CSJ), who journeyed from France, to teach children in what was then the English-speaking colony of Upper Canada some 160 years ago. During the period under study, both grew from small single-convent academies delivering a specialized curriculum to a network of state-inspected schools. The research upon which the chapter is built is drawn from an ongoing study of women religious and education in English Canada. Through an analysis of sources drawn from an array of public and private archives, the chapter argues that the convent academies and institutions of higher education established by these communities were characterized by continuity and change.
