The Sisters of St. Joseph of Pembroke are a group of fifty Roman Catholic women religious based in eastern Ontario. We are the smallest of six such groups that together form the Canadian Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph.

The original congregation was founded over 350 years ago in France as an active community who went out to "quarter the city." Their challenge was to assess the needs in the community and to do "any work of which women are capable" to address these as well as the root causes of the sufferings they so readily found.

In 1836, six Sisters of St. Joseph left France and traveled to Carondelet, Missiouri. From there members of our congregation eventually spread all over the United States and Canada. We arrived in Pembroke, Ontario from Peterborough in 1921, in response to a request from Bishop Ryan for teachers to staff the schools of the seperate school system. In 1946, we opened our first hospitals and Homes for the Aged in western Canada.

By 1964, we were able to establish a mission in Peru which is still operating today. Two finally professed Peruvian Sisters from our Congregation carry on our mission in Chincha.

Besides serving in Peru, we minister in the Pembroke Diocese and in Ottawa. We have a house of Prayer, Stillpoint, In Springtown, Ontario (Calabogie area).

We also have a very active and vibrant group of Associates both in Peru and in Canada. Associates are lay men and women, married couples, and even families who feel called to share our spirituality and to live our mission of active, inclusive love in their own particular life circumstances. In our Congregation in Canada, our Associates are organized in small faith communities extending from Deep River to Ottawa and they meet regularly for sharing and input. Two of them, a husband and wife, are presently working with the poor in Guatemala. Many of the Associates have made a formal commitment to live our mission, and all of them are involved in ministry in their own areas while some, especially in Peru, give assistance in the ministries of the Sisters.