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Catholic Religious Communities Archives

The Catholic Religious Communities Archive (CRCA) preserves and provides access to the histories of Canadian Catholic religious communities. Through archival stewardship, instruction, and public outreach, the CRCA supports research, education, and community engagement, ensuring these communities’ cultural, spiritual, and social contributions remain visible, discoverable, and understood for future generations.

Donations

The CRCA builds on the transformative donations from the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society (SFMS), the Sisters of Service (SOS), the Loretto Sisters (IBVM) and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie and the Sisters of St. Joseph In Canada. Together, these founding collections span more than 1,200 linear metres and represent a rich and multifaceted documentary heritage.

Recognizing Catholic contributions

The CRCA preserves rare and unique primary sources that document the vital contributions of Catholic religious communities in education, health care, international mission, and social justice. Open to all researchers, it supports academic study, personal inquiry, and public understanding through dedicated reading room access, course-integrated instruction, exhibitions, lectures, and outreach activities that engage students, faculty, donor communities, and independent researchers alike.

Stewardship and scholarship

As one of few initiatives of its kind in North America, the CRCA reflects St. Michael’s commitment to stewardship, scholarship, and service. Its development ensures these significant collections remain in Toronto, preserved within a vibrant academic setting where they continue to inform research, teaching, and community engagement for generations.

Holdings within the Catholic Religious Communities Archive

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Scarboro Foreign Mission Society fonds

Scarboro Missions, known formally as the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, is a Society of Canadian Roman Catholic priests dedicated to mission work domestically and abroad. The Society was founded in Almonte, Ontario, in 1918 by Msgr. John Mary Fraser as the “China Mission College” in order to train and send priests to China. Moving to Scarborough, Ontario, in the 1921, the Society became the “St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary”. The new seminary opened in 1924. With Vatican approval of the Society’s Constitutions in 1940, the Society became the “Scarboro Foreign Mission Society”.

Complications arising from the Second Sino-Japanese War, WWII, and the Communist Revolution in China forced Scarboro to begin missions elsewhere, starting in the Dominican Republic in 1943. The Society has missions in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) greatly impacted the Society. In addition to traditional evangelical missionary work, the Society engaged in social and economic justice work, ecumenical efforts, and were a large supporter and educator in interfaith dialogue in the Toronto-area. The Society also began to accept lay members to work in mission – singles and married couples – beginning in 1974.

In November 2017, the Society announced that due to aging and declining membership they would stop accepting new candidates for the priesthood or lay program.

Learn more about the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society fonds on Discover Archives

Sisters of Service fonds

The Religious Institute of the Sisters of Service (SOS) are a community of Roman Catholic religious women established to work with newcomers to Canada and bring the Church to rural communities. They were founded on August 15, 1922 in Toronto, and have 124 permanent members.

Unlike most other Catholic women religious at the time in traditional habits and large convents, the SOS wore simple grey uniforms and hats and lived in small communities. The simple and flexible nature of their Institute allowed the Sisters, as a domestic missionary community, to more easily adapt to the ways of life in the communities in which they lived. Their motto was “I Have Come To Serve” and the Sisters lived this charism by serving in many communities across Canada. In Western Canada, they worked as teachers, nurses and social workers. In larger cities, they operated hostels/residences for working women, particularly recently arrived immigrant women. The Sisters also maintained a presence at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, assisting newcomers in the transition from the ports to their homesteads. The SOS also provided catechetical instruction via religious correspondence schools and religious vacation schools during the summer months.

In 2012, after deciding to accept no new applicants to the novitiate, the Sisters signed a sponsorship agreement with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, who have assumed their administration.

Learn more about the Sisters of Services fonds on Discover Archives

Please direct queries to: specialcollections.kellylibrary@utoronto.ca

Appointments are required.

Before visiting, you are warmly encouraged to review the Researcher Guidelines. Rare materials damage easily but if well-treated, they can last many generations and, in some cases, hundreds of years.