File 11 - Circular Letters – Sister General Patricia Burke, January-July 1974; Sister General Helen Hayes, July-December 1974

Born 9 September 1924, St. Jacques, Newfoundland, daughter of Anthony Burke and Rita Hartigan; entered 26 July 1952; first vows, 15 August 1956; final vows, 2 February 1960; died 28 April 2018.

The oldest of 11 children, Patricia grew up in the Newfoundland fishing village of St. Jacques on the eastern shore of Fortune Bay. She was educated at St. Jacques convent school under the Presentation Sisters and later at St. Brides College in St. John’s, where she obtained a teaching certificate. Patricia also helped to support the family with her teacher’s salary. After teaching school for six years, she joined the department of public welfare as a social worker and enrolled in the Memorial College. At the age of 27, she entered the Sisters of Service in July 1952, a year before the community established a women’s residence in St. John’s. Following the profession of first vows on August 15, 1956, Sister Burke attended the Maritime School of Social Work (1956-1958), receiving a diploma in social work.

Posted to Saskatoon, she put her training and life’s experience into practice as a social worker at the Catholic Welfare Society in that city (1958-1966) under Sister Ann O’Brien. During this time, Sister Burke earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Saskatchewan in 1964 and a professional teaching certificate from the department of education in Regina.

Following the election in 1966 to the community’s administrative council, Sister Burke moved to the Toronto headquarters for the next eight years. In the positions of Assistant Sister General (1966-1970) and Sister General (1970-1974), she directed the community to a new era of apostolate to renew and adjust to the changes of the Second Vatican Council and of society, seven of the eight women’s residences were closed. The religious correspondence schools and the summer religious vacation schools were transformed to home and parish-based catechesis. Moreover, she oversaw the construction of a new Motherhouse in east end Toronto to house the increasing number of retired sisters.

She returned to Halifax (1974-1975) for studies, graduating with a masters of social work degree from Dalhousie University. With these academic credentials, she and Sister Anna McNally moved to Northern Saskatchewan to provide social services. For almost two decades, Sister Burke held a series of positions to assist the Indigenous, developing social programs after the gradual closure of the residential schools. At La Loche, she was appointed as director of Social Services for the department of Northern Saskatchewan (1975-1979) and moved to Green Lake (1979-1982), where she assumed the posts of co-ordinator of school and community services (1979-1980) in St. Pascal school and of family services supervisor and regional director (1980-1982). After a sabbatical (1982-1983), attending St. John’s school of theology in Collegeview, Minnesota, Sister Burke returned to the northern Saskatchewan as a social worker program in development and field supervision at the regional office (1983-1985) at La Ronge. Putting into practice the newly-acquired master of science degree in administration from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, (1985), she was promoted to regional director (1985-1986) of social services in Creighton, combining social work administration with program development. Returning to La Ronge (1987-1989), she served in the literacy program development and administration as a social worker in social services section of Northlands College.

She served as superior at Hospitality House, Edmonton (1989-1990) and returned to Northland College (1990-1991), developing programs for college campus in Buffalo Narrows. She moved back to La Ronge (1991-1994) as the co-ordinator of services for the disabled at the Gary Tinker Federation. She was elected to the SOS administrative council as Assistant General (1994-1998) and co-ordinator (1998-2003). In 2011 when the sponsorship agreement was signed with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, she retired to an apartment in mid-town Toronto until 2014 before entering Providence Centre, where she died on April 28, 2018. The wake service and Mass of the Resurrection were held in the chapel of the Sisters of St. Joseph residence in Toronto with her nephew Rev. John Mark Massio as celebrant and Rev. William Fitzgerald, C.Ss.R. as concelebrant. Burial followed at the Sisters plot in Mount Hope cemetery, Toronto.

Born: 24 December 1924 in Tichbourne, Ontario; daughter of William Hayes and Anne King; entered 21 January 1949; first vows 15 August 1951; final vows 15 August 1956; died 2 March 2013.

Although born near Kingston, Ontario, Helen grew up in British Columbia, when her family moved in 1926 to Kamloops for her father's opportunities on the railroad. A few months later when Helen was still two years old, her father died as a result of an industrial accident. The family moved to her grandparent's farm at Kingsvale, B.C. The railroad company paid for Helen's education as a boarding student at the Sisters of St. Ann's school in Kamloops. When Helen was 14, her mother remarried and the family moved to the BC interior community of Williams Lake. Helen finished her education with a commercial course at St. Ann's Academy in Vancouver and returned to Williams Lake. Although her long-term goal was teaching, she worked in the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Later as a stenographer, she joined the local branch office of the federal Department of Indian Affairs.

A member of the Redemptorist parish of Sacred Heart, she played the organ for Mass, weddings and funerals. Outside the church, she sang in an ecumenical community choir and loved to dance. With opportunities to marry, she decided to discover whether she had a religious vocation and was encouraged by her pastor, Fr. Bernard Johnson, C.Ss.R., brother of Sister Anne Johnson.

On December 8, 1948, the day Helen received word that she had been accepted by the Sisters of Service. . Two years later, Sister Hayes professed first vows in the novitiate chapel on August 15, 1951. Appointed first to the women's residence in Toronto (1951-1952), she returned to Western Canada as bookkeeper at Our Lady's Hospital in Vilna (1952-1956) until final vows in Toronto and summer music school under Monsignor J.E. Ronan, director of church music of the Toronto archdiocese. An appointment (1956-1961) at the women's residence in Winnipeg lent itself to the opportunity for her to attend Normal School (1962-1963) in that city, and to earn a teacher's certificate. Moving to Camp Morton, she taught at King Edward School No. 1 (1963-1965), bringing also her music talent to the classroom. With her guitar and teaching skills, she served in Grand Forks (1965-1969) at the correspondence school in the North Dakota Diocese of Fargo. During these years following the Second Vatican Council, she was appointed the diocese’s acting director of religious education in April 1966.

A year later, she was elected as Sister General for the first of three consecutive terms from 1974 until 1986. During her administration as part of the renewal process, the painstaking task by the entire community was undertaken to revise the original Rule and write a new constitution. With the closing of the original apostolates, 16 new missions were established, involving sisters in parishes, education, public health, and social work in Yukon, in the Maritimes, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. In preparing for an appointment as superior of SOS retirement residence (1987-1989), she attended corporate ministries program at the University of St. Louis, Missouri. For the next 10 years, she served in Saskatchewan, correspondence school of religion (1989-1991) in Regina, parish minister, Milestone (1991-1994) and superior of the Regina house from 1994 until it was closed in 2001. She again was elected on the General Council (1994-1998).

Returning to the Motherhouse in Toronto (2001-2010), Sister Helen edited the internal community newsletter Here and There and visited the retired sisters. Upon the sale of the Motherhouse, she moved to LaSalle Manor, where her health declined with falls and a final severe stroke. She died on March 2, 2013 in St. Michael’s Hospital. In respecting her wish for no wake, a Mass of Ressurection at LaSalle Manor was celebrated by Fr. William Fitzgerald, C.Ss.R. Sister Helen's ashes were buried in the community's plot in Mount Hope cemetery, Toronto.