File 1 - Correspondence, Sister General Florence Regan

Born 15 August 1882 in Toronto, daughter of James Regan and Maria Whalen; entered 6 January 1925; first vows 24 June 1926; final vows 15 August 1931; died 8 January 1972.

Growing up in an Irish-Catholic family in Toronto, Florence worked as a stenographer in the manufacturing department of Imperial Oil, rising to the position as executive secretary. Entering in January 1925 at the age of 36, she professed first vows on June 24, 1926 as a pioneer member of the community. Shortly afterwards, she travelled to Western Canada as superior of the newly-opened catechetical mission in Edmonton (1926-1928) to develop the new venture of sending catechism lessons by mail and of teaching in person catechism to children. In July 1927 at the request of Archbishop Mathieu of Regina, she and Sister Mary Rodgers embarked on a tour teaching catechism to children in Saskatchewan.

The following year as the student enrollment of the Edmonton religious correspondence school increased steadily, Sister Regan was appointed by Toronto Archbishop Neil McNeil as the first Sister General and superior of the Toronto Motherhouse. Since the founding in 1922, the community had opened eight missions. For the next nine years, she was intricately involved in the building, planning and expanding the community throughout Canada. Professed sisters voted to reappoint Sister Regan and her General Council of Sisters Kathleen Schenck and Carmel Egan for a second term in 1931 and a third three-year term in 1934, all of whom made final vows on August 15, 1931.

Under her watch, the community opened women's hostels in Vancouver and Edmonton; a rural teaching mission in St. Brides, Alberta, and two new hospitals were constructed in Edson and Vilna, Alberta to replace the original frame buildings. Although she left office as Sister General in 1937, Sister Regan remained as superior of the Motherhouse (1937-1943) and on the General Council, elected to serve three consecutive terms of 1937-1943, 1943-1948 and 1948-1954.

Leaving the Motherhouse in 1943, she moved to the novitiate until moving to the new Motherhouse at 10 Montcrest in 1970. She died at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, on January 8, 1972 at the age of 89. In Holy Family church, near the Motherhouse, Fr. Bernard Regan, CSB, a cousin and the main celebrant, concelebrated the funeral mass with Fr. Edward Dowling SJ, Redemptorist Provincial Superior Richard Bedard and Fr. William Brown. Her body was buried in the community's plot in Mount Hope cemetery, Toronto.