Élisabeth Bruyère was born in L’Assomption, Quebec, 
on March 19, 1818. Having lost her father at the age of six, she spent part of her life in Montreal where her mother worked as a housekeeper. Élisabeth had to care for her two younger brothers while attending school with the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre‑Dame.
The beneficiary of an excellent education, thanks to her cousin who was a teacher, Élisabeth taught for five years in the rural and village schools.
A woman of daring faith and a compassionate heart, she took her religious vows in 1841 with the Grey Nuns of Montreal, spiritual daughters of Marguerite d’Youville.
Chosen as the founding superior of a new mission in Bytown, Élisabeth Bruyère became the foundress of the first women’s congregation in Ottawa, on February 20, 1845.
She incarnated the charism of Mother d’Youville, that of a great compassion for the needy, yet opened it to a new dimension, in the field of education, which revealed itself as a priority in Bytown.
Filled with an ardent desire to be one with the will of God, she brought solace to the unfor-tunate, to the needy and the sick.
As early as 1845, several services and works of mercy came to light: the first bilingual school in Eastern Ontario, a general hospital, a home for the elderly and orphans and the care of abandoned children.
If her life is a beautiful love story for God and the needy, her countenance is an icon of open hands and a heart on fire. She left this world in the peace of God on April 5, 1876. At that time, her congregation numbered 26 houses and 198 Sisters.
Today, the SCO place their charism of compassion at the service of the great evangelizing mission of the Church.
Today, the ACSCO, bearers of the same founding charism, share the same spirituality and the same mission.
