Émilie Gamelin

Émilie Tavernier Gamelin (19 February 1800 – 23 September 1851) was a Canadian Catholic social worker and religious sister best known as the founder of the Sisters of Providence of Montreal. In 2001, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Early life She was born Marie-Émilie-Eugène Tavernier (also known as Amélie) on 19 February 1800 in Montreal, the youngest of the 15 children of Antoine Tavernier and Marie-Josephe Maurice. Nine of her siblings died before reaching adulthood. Gamelin's mother died in 1804 when Gamelin was aged 4 and her father died in 1814 when Gamelin was aged 14. Consequently, Gamelin was raised by her aunt Marie-Anne Tavernier and her husband Joseph Perrault, to whose care Gamelin's mother had entrusted Émilie prior to her death. Gamelin shared the Perrault household with her aunt and uncle and their four children.

From 1814 to 1815, Gamelin boarded at the school run by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, before returning to the Perrault household. In 1818 Gamelin moved to the house of her brother François, whose wife had recently died, to care for him. When she returned to the Perrault household in 1819, her aunt, now old and infirm, put Émilie under the care of her daughter Agathe (born 1787), who became a third mother to her. In a letter to Agathe dated 18 June 1822, Gamelin wrote that she felt "a strong vocation [...] for the convent. [...] I renounce for ever the young dandies and also the [vanities of this] world; I shall become a religious some time in the autumn."

In March 1838, Gamelin contracted typhoid fever and became seriously ill; however, she later recovered. Gamelin's cousin Joseph Perrault had been elected to the Assembly as a member of the Canadian Party. In the 1832 by-election for Montreal West, Lower Canada, Gamelin was one of 226 women who sought to vote. She cast her vote for the Patriot candidate Daniel Tracey in preference to his Tory opponent Bagg. in which Bourget conferred canonical status on the new religious congregation and named it the Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor (later to become popularly known as the Sisters of Charity of Providence; in 1970 the congregation officially was named the Sisters of Providence). At this ceremony, Gamelin and the other six novices became religious sisters, taking the traditional vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience as well as a fourth one of service to the poor. The following day (30 March) Gamelin was elected Superior General of the new congregation and was granted the title of Mother Gamelin.

Veneration alt=A stylised metal statue of a hooded woman holding a basket. In 1960, investigations were begun with the intention of starting the cause for Gamelin's possible beatification and canonization. On 31 May 1981, the inquiry was formally begun in the Archdiocese of Montreal, and Gamelin was thereby proclaimed a Servant of God. The Providence Centre is located on Grenet Street in Montreal. It accommodates the General Administration of the congregation, the Centre Émilie-Gamelin and the Sisters of Providence Museums and the Archives.

The Asylum of Providence was demolished in 1963. Since 1995, this land (formally known as Square Berri) has been known as Place Émilie-Gamelin.

Statue A 1999 bronze sculpture of Gamelin by Raoul Hunter is installed in the Saint Catherine Street exit of Montreal's Berri–UQAM station, in Quebec, Canada.

An identical bronze sculpture is installed in the vestibule of Providence Care Center in Calgary Alberta. Providence Care Center is part of the Father Lacombe Care Society which was founded by 4 Sisters of Providence in 1910 at the request of Father Albert Lacombe.