Grier, Sarah Hannah Roberta (Coome)

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Murray W. Nicolson, “GRIER, SARAH HANNAH ROBERTA (Coome),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/grier_sarah_hannah_roberta_15E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Founder and superior of the Sisters of St John the Divine; b. 28 Oct. 1837 in Carrying Place, Upper Canada, third daughter of John Grier and Eliza Lilias Geddes; m. 23 July 1859 Charles Horace Coome; d. 9 Feb. 1921 in Toronto
    • Educated at home by her father, a high-church Anglican clergyman, Hannah Grier married a civil engineer working on the Grand Trunk Railway. She was on her way to enter the Sisters of St Mary in 1881 when, stopping in Toronto to visit her mother, she was approached about forming a sisterhood there.
    • After making her profession on 8 Sept. 1884 in Peekskill, Hannah founded the Sisterhood of St John the Divine in Toronto, taking up residence there at Bishop Strachan School, where her sister Rose Jane Elizabeth was principal. In December, Hannah and Aimée Hare occupied a converted house on Robinson Street, in a receptive parish known for its high-church traditions, and began work: meals for the poor, a dispensary, Bible classes, visitations, the provision of clothing, and sewing for churches.
    • Leaving three sisters in Toronto, Hannah, a novice (Aimée Hare), and two postulants joined three lay nurses in staffing a field hospital in Moose Jaw (Sask.), where, aided by Dr William Canniff, they tended the wounded from Batoche and Fish Creek. For her work, Hannah received a service medal from the government.
    • Following their return in July, the sisters quickly set up St John’s House on Euclid Avenue, the first surgical hospital for women in Toronto, and secured a staff of doctors. Over the next few years they progressed in several directions: a home for the aged (1886), an enlarged hospital and convent on Major Street (1888–89), incorporation of the order (with five sisters, 1889), a mission in Seaton Village north of Bloor Street (1890), and a system of lay associates and responsibility for Bishop Bethune College in Oshawa (1893). Though three British sisterhoods within the Church of England had established branches in Canada by 1900, the Sisters of St John remained the only Canadian order.
  • Great Granddaughter of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=11586
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60741316/hannah-grier-coome