St. Paul's Hospital

Sister Guay and Sister Phaneuf, both members of the order of Grey Nuns were traveling the Canadian Northwest "soliciting alm s on behalf of the order's establishments at St. Boniface" (St. Paul's, 4). The sisters arrived in Saskatoon to a most enthusiastic welcome from Father Joseph Paille as many of his parishioners were ill with typhoid and he had appealed to his superior in Montreal for help. The typhoid outbreak seemed to have begun with workers building the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways bridge. And because there was no proper hospital in Saskatoon, many of the patients were being housed at the rectory. Sisters Guay and Phaneuf stayed throughout the emergency, providing their services to the sick. "Dr. F. D. Stewart subsequently obtained permission from their provincial house at St. Boniface for them to stay indefinitely. And in the meantime, Father Vachon, with the doctors' backing, renewed his efforts to have a permanent Grey Nun's hospital opened as soon as possible...On January 21, 1907, three sisters - Sister St. Dosithee, the first superior; Sister Mailloux and Sister Blakely - left Montreal for Saskatoon to found the new hospital. Their train journey from St. Boniface to Saskatoon was marked by long delays, great discomfort and minor mishaps, but, fortunately, the arrived safely and joining Sisters Phaneuf and Guay, began to make immediate arrangements to open a Grey Nuns' hospital" (St.Paul's, 4-5).