Memorable Manitobans: Gertrude Davis (?-1989)

Nun.

Born in London, England, she joined the Order of the Religious of the Good Shepard in 1924, taking the name of St. Mary of St. Helen. Coming to Winnipeg at a young age, she taught at the Convent of the Good Shepard in West Kildonan from 1926 to 1932, leaving for South America in 1932 to teach at the English Catholic College in Le Paz, Bolivia for thirteen years. Summoned to Santa Rosa, she helped to build the church of Our Lady of Cochamba and a state prison for women, being awarded in 1955 with the ‘Condor of the Andes’, the highest award offered by the Bolivian state. She returned to Canada in 1962, but returned to South America, to Lima in Peru to supervise an English girl’s school until 1967, when she was called by to Canada, settling at the Convent of the Good Shepard in Plerrefonds, Quebec. She died there on 8 May 1989.

Sources:

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, Saturday, 3 June 1989, page 58.

This profile was prepared by Kris Keen.

Profile revised: 1 October 2009

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