Pioneering Spirit: The Sisters of Providence in Alaska

Gold Fever and Health Care
"Your dear Sisters not only know how to
relieve the misery of hum anity by saving
bodies, but are also the instruments that our
Lord uses to save many souls. Come therefore
w ithout hesitation for the love of O ur Lord
Jesus Christ and his Holy Mother. . . . All the
doctors of Nome, all the Catholics, the entire
population joins with Father Jacquet and me
to beg you not to reject our request and to
undertake this work which is so profitable to
Alaska, to the Church, and which conforms
so well to [the purpose of] your Institute."
To these pleas were joined those of Father
George de La Motte, a Jesuit who visited Nome
in July 1901 just after Father Ren£ returned to his
headquarters in Juneau. He too sensed the warm
feelings of the residents of Nome towards the
Sisters, and urged the M other General to accede
to Father Ren£'s request. "The residents, even the
Protestants, are disgusted with the hospitals that
were begun last year and yearn for a Sisters'
hospital."
Under these circumstances the disappointment
of the Jesuit Fathers was great w hen they learned
of the inability of the Sisters of Providence to send
Sisters to Nome. Because of the dem ands for
Sisters in Montreal and elsewhere, M other Mary
Antoinette wrote on 12 August 1901, the General
Council did not foresee accepting invitations to
found new establishments for at least two years.
But neither Father Jacquet nor Father Ren£
could accept such a negative reply, and they continued
their entreaties. For his part, Father Jacquet
asked a colleague in Seattle to help persuade the
Provincial Superior at Vancouver to send him two
Sisters, at least temporarily. "And if Nom e does
not suit them and things are not as represented,
then let them return and we shall compensate
them well for their trouble." He then wrote to the
General Council of the Sisters of Providence in
Montreal, citing Nome's rich gold fields and their
fund-raising opportunities for the Sisters. Beyond
this practical consideration, he pleaded for Sisters
because "the people here will not forgive us if we
do not obtain, this year, the Sisters that have been
prom ised for th e m ."
As Prefect Apostolic of Alaska, Father Ren£ was
so committed to the idea of sending Sisters to
Nom e that he went to the extraordinary length
of visiting Montreal during the fall of 1901. There
his personal entreaty to both the Bishop of M ontreal
and to the General Council achieved the
desired result: a commitment in principle to
establish a Sisters of Providence hospital in Nome.
However, by this date the season was so advanced
that there was insufficient time for Sisters to arrive
before navigation closed in the fall of 1901.
The missionary tradition of the Sisters of Providence
compelled the religious com m unity to
extend its work to the far reaches of Alaska. The
Sisters brought their tradition of service and a
deep desire to help provide the most basic needs
of humanity: shelter, care, and compassion. In
1902 they set out to provide medical care for the
people who sought temporal riches in the treeless
Seward Peninsula on the shores of Norton Sound.
The Very Reverend
John B. Renk , S.J.,
Prefect Apostolic of
Alaska.
Photo courtesy of the Archives
of the Oregon Province of the
Society of Jesus, Spokane.
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