The Little Sisters of the Holy Family
A brief story of our Congregation

Mother Leonie, Alodie Paradis, is the foundress of our Community. She was born on May 12, 1840, in L'Acadie, a little village of Quebec.

At the age of thirteen, Alodie entered the novitiate of the young community of the Sisters of the Holy Cross at Saint Laurent, near Montreal. Her cherish ideal was to devote herself to the service of priests as the Sisters did in the seminaries and colleges. She made her vows on August 22, 1857, and was given the name Leonie. Father Basile Moreau, founder of the Sisters, accepted her vows in spite of her young age and frail health. After working in Canada for a few years, Sister Leonie was sent to St. Vincent's Orphanage in New York City where she stayed eight years until circumstances placed her in the American Province of the Holy Cross Sisters : the Province of Notre Dame Indiana. The reason which lead to her changing Provinces was the fact that the Sisters of the Province of St. Laurent had dropped the work of serving the priests by household management, and were teaching, while this work was still being done by the Sisters in Indiana. When this special work was abandoned, Sister Leonie felt herself to be no longer in the path the Lord has pointed out to her when he called her to follow him. After consultation with her Superiors, she went to Notre Dame, Indiana, where the original work of domestic work still continued at the University.

In 1864, Father Camille Lefebvre, a Holy Cross priest, had founded St. Joseph College in Memramcook, New Brunswick. In 1872, he was summoned to the General Chapter at Notre Dame, Indiana. There he had the opportunity to witness the competent work done by the Sisters at the University of Notre Dame. At once, he appealed for Sisters for St. Joseph's College; however it was not until 1874 that some Sisters arrived in Memramcook. Unfortunately, these Sisters did not know French and the Acadians in New Brunswick did not speak English. Father Lefebvre then requested some Sisters speaking both languages. Sister Leonie was one of the group to arrive and she was named Directress of the group.

Numerous girls and women presented themselves to the group after the arrival of the Sisters. Permission was granted to receive subjects for the Holy Cross Community, but they had to make their Novitiate at Notre Dame which was far away. The great distance and the financial problems it caused for these Acadian girls, who were from poor families, made this impratical.

Sister Leonie explained the position of the Acadians to the Bishop of Montreal, Bishop Fabre and received advice that led to the founding of a Community distinct from Holy Cross; one in which the members could support themselves by the work of their hands and satisfy their longing for the Religious Life.

Father Lefebvre and Mother Marie-Leonie as she was called from this time, labored to give all the advantages of a religious Life to those who were received into the new community. They gave the name " Little Sisters " to the group and placed it under the patronage of the Holy Family.

Canonical approval was very slow to come. While Bishop Sweeney, the Bishop of St. John, New Brunswick, realized the value of the work, he kept postponing the required authorization. The delayed approval proved a blessing as it paved the way for events that would contribute to the development. Father Lefebvre died in 1895. The Sisters had worked for over 15 years without being approved as a Religious Community, and the task was left to Mother Leonie of either obtaining the approbation or of abandoning the work. Providentially, this same year, Bishop Paul LaRocque, Bishop of Sherbrooke, Quebec, invited the Community of the Little Sisters to settle in his Episcopal city. On January 27, 1896, Bishop LaRocque published the decree of Canonical Erection of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.

At first the Congregation of the Holy Cross had been the only group of priests to benefit from the services of the Little Sisters. Since 1895, when the Mother House was transferred to Sherbrooke, the missions of the Community had branched out and multiplied. It included a field of activity not thought of at first. Bishop LaRocque wished the ecclesiastical houses of both Canada and United States to have the avantages as the Holy Cross Fathers; therefore Sisters are found devoting themselves to the humble duties of housekeeping in the Apostolic Delegations at Ottawa and Washington D.C; in Cardinal's Residences of Archbishops and Bishops in various cities; in Seminaries; Communities of Religious Orders; Homes for retired Priests and in Rectories.

From the 100 Sisters that Mother Marie-Leonie brought with her to Sherbrooke in 1895 the number grew so that at her death in 1912, there were over 600. Since 1962 the Community is planted in Honduras, later in Guatemala where the Little Sisters do the same for their priests.