Sr. Barbara Schamber has completed a real labor of love recently with the publication of Gifts of Water and Mountain. The book tells the challenging history of the first 150 years of the Sisters of Providence in the American West 1856-2006.
Utilizing extensive archival histories, many written and maintained by the Sisters themselves in chronicles, Sr. Barbara recounts the founding of the Sisters of Providence to minister to the poor in Montreal, and soon after, their call to expand this mission to the Northwest Territories of Washington, Oregon and Montana.
Led by the vision and tenacity of Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the sisters established the first hospitals, schools and orphanages across the untamed territories of the West. These mission-oriented, pioneering women religious established many indelible and lasting institutions that still provide far-reaching benefits in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
[[ Buy at Amazon: Gifts of Water and Mountains Tells the Story of the Sisters of Providence in the West ]]
No history of the Pacific Northwest is complete without understanding the extensive role of the Sisters of Providence.
Sr. Barbara describes the struggle of the sisters, at first, to respond to the needs of the French-Canadian trappers at Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory and, after, the expansion and growth of their mission inland to meet the needs of frontier communities. She also relates in detail, the decades of adaptations to rapid secular and religious changes of the 20th century.
From the Foreword, by Sr. Margaret Botch, SP:
“This book written in faith and filled with people, places, projects, events, and surprises comes to life through (Sister Barbara’s) careful and adept use of the resources she researched, assembled and developed. When I read her manuscript, which is spiced with quotes from letters, biographies, personal interviews, and archive treasures, some stories I’ve heard many times became for the first time episodes in the lives of real people sharing what matters to them. At times a smile, a lump in my throat, or a prayer accompanied my reading. I got clearer images of where, when and how missions and ministries began and ended, and gained a deeper sense of the Spirit guiding Sisters of Providence and their collaborators into creative and risky projects that serve the needs of poor and marginalized people. I identified with struggles, and found a new appreciation for the humility, simplicity and charity manifested in small beginnings and appropriate endings.”
Proceeds from sales will benefit the Sisters of Providence.