Sister Élisabeth Bruyère and St. Marguerite d’Youville Monument

The monument at Beechwood honours the memory Sister Élisabeth Bruyère (1818-1876) and St. Marguerite d’Youville (1701-1771).

Sister Élisabeth Bruyère, a young member of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, had been chosen by her superiors to come to Bytown in 1845 with a few companions to establish the sisters of Charity, the first religious congregation in Bytown. Mother Bruyère alongside the sisters of Charity, established a school, a home for the aged, an orphanage, a home for abandoned children and founded a general hospital that would later become the Ottawa General Hospital and is now the Elizabeth Bruyère Hospital, part of the Bruyère Continuing Care organization. The Sisters of Charity cared for people of every religious denomination in Bytown.

St. Marguerite d’Youville was a French-Canadian widow who founded the religious order of Sisters of Charity of Montreal, commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal. She was canonized by Pope John-Paul II of the Roman Catholic Church in 1990, the first native-born Canadian to be declared a saint.

Canadian sculptor Achim Arthur Klaas (1950- ) created a sculptural group of five life-size figures, including a schoolgirl, an orphan boy and a sick or homeless person ‒ who represent all those whom Mother Bruyère and her companions had come to help.

The monument was a community achievement, organized and brought to fruition by a dedicated fundraising committee: Sister Lorraine Desjardins, of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa as well as Mr. Klaas and Anita Bourdeau who were the initiators and driving force behind the project. This beautiful monument was the result of generous contributions from the community ‒ individuals, organizations, religious congregations and businesses.

The Bruyère−d'Youville Monument was unveiled on 30 May 2007.