52 Ancestors: Sister St. Christina Landry (1897 - 1956) - Religious Hospitaliers of St. Joseph

My ancestor this week is my 1st cousin 2x removed, Anne Mary Christina Landry. She is the only daughter of Marie Christine Mazerolle and Joseph Didace Landry. She was born September 29, 1897 in Inkerman, Gloucester County, New Brunswick and died November 23, 1956 in Chatham, Northumberland County, New Brunswick. Christina was raised along with her only brother Francis in the Inkerman area until at least 1911 (the year her father died). Sometime between 1911 and 1921 Christina left Inkerman and traveled almost 100 km along the coast to Chatham to join the Catholic religious order, the Religious Hospitaliers of St. Joseph (RHSJ).

http://saintmichaelsmuseum.com/history/rhsj.html (accessed March 8, 2014)

When did she decide to join this religious order and how did she end up 100km away from home? I can only speculate that she might have gone to the convent school run by RHSJ in Tracadie, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, only 20 km away, when her mother remarried in 1912. She must have decided to join the order and was sent to Chatham RHSJ had established the Hotel Dieu and nursing home, as well as the large elementary/secondary school (St. Michael's Academy).  On the 1921 Canadian census for Northumberland County, Chatham there is a Mary Landry, 22 years old with occupation Religious living at the Hotel Dieu Hospital and Convent. I think this is Christina, however Mary Landry was a popular name so there is some doubt that this is my Anne Mary Christina Landry. Christina must have been part of the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the RHSJ that was held in 1929, I wonder if she is in the picture above or knew any of the Nuns in the picture below that was taken in 1946 (10 years before she died).

http://saintmichaelsmuseum.com/history/rhsj.html#cemeteries (accessed March 8, 2014)

What pointed me to look for Christina in Chatham on the 1921 census was her death certificate. Christina died of a bowel obstruction on November 23, 1956 at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Chatham where she served as a Nun of the RHSJ. Her death certificate states she was a Nun for 35 years (which brought me to the 1921 census for Chatham). She was in ill health for over a year as Christina had surgery for an ovarian cyst October 1955. A quick Google search on my part found that ovarian cysts and bowl obstructions commonly are seen together.

http://saintmichaelsmuseum.com/history/rhsj.html#cemeteries (accessed March 8, 2014)

http://saintmichaelsmuseum.com/history/rhsj.html#cemeteries (accessed March 8, 2014)

Christina was buried in the Sister's Cemetery in Chatham November 26, 1956. It is sad that I did not become interested in genealogy sooner as we always visited this area when I was younger. Maybe someday I will get to visit there again and search out her final burial spot.