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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Sister Rita Carmen Bergamini 
December 12, 1980 
Cassette 1, Side 2 
 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  00:02 
Sister Rita Bergamini, interviewed by Susan Ehlers for Washington Women's Heritage Project, 
December 12, 1980, tape one, side two. Okay, about Mother Joseph. Was it her idea to join the 
order, or was it simply the father said, One day, you know, you're going to enter, or you have no 
idea about that? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  00:28 
 No, it certainly was her own free idea and the church is very careful about that-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  00:33 
--yeah, but once the father got, you know, got the idea. Then the father really did a [?sewing 
job?].  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  00:33 
Well, the father thing that-- usually in those French Canadian families, they were very pleased 
when one of their daughters would want to give herself completely to God, in the service of God. 
They were deeply religious families, and that was a real honor for them. Although it was-- it was 
hard, you know, it was a gift, it was a sacrifice. But yes, they felt it was a gift to God, and in all 
sincerity. And yes, she was very sincere in her vocation to want to do what God wanted her to 
do. And so, she spent about 12 years then working very closely with Mother Gamelin and young 
sisters. And she was a treasurer, that local general community back there. She was also a 
pharmacist at one time, she was-- she helped take care of the poor in the city. She was doing the 
social work. She was doing all those works of the sisters at that time. And then the bishop from 
the west came out, Blanchet, came to the mother house and heard of the works that the sisters 
were doing in Montréal, and said, You know, I'd like some of these sisters. We need these kinds 
of works in our own archdiocese out there in the west. We have the Hudson Bay Company, and 
they have their families. And we need people out here to educate the children. And there are the 
Indians. Most of the people are the Indians out in the west. So we need them to educate the 
children. The priests are taking care of the boys as far as education, but we need somebody for 
the girls. The story goes on. So... 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  02:10 
The Sisters of Providence are mainly a nursing order, or an educational order, or... 
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Sister Rita Bergamini  02:16 
Combined, we're almost ha-- it's, oh, that's sort of like boys and girls in this-- in our community, 
it's almost half and half that have gone into just by choice, and avocation, and aptitude into 
nursing or education, and it's almost the way it is today. It's hospitals and schools. People come 
to us. We don't recruit, you know, so many nurses and so many--but those who come to serve 
seem to be inclined for the general works of the community, which is a real advantage. So we do 
have... 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  02:40 
Okay, okay. And so, the bishop requested-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  02:45 
--So Mother Joseph came and asked that the sisters could come west in 1852. That was at the 
first time. And a group came, but they weren't ready for them out here. Like Lynn Donovan and 
her women history studies tells you that there's about five to 10% women out here. At that time, 
it was a wilderness, and they weren't just organized to bring the sisters. So the sisters started to 
return, and they went down to Chile, and that first little group that came started the Sisters of 
Providence in Chile, and so we have a group of our sisters down there. They are a province of 
our community. For a while, they were separated out, but now they're back with us, as a group. 
Then again, in 1856 he asked for the sisters, and at that time, Mother Joseph came with four 
other sisters, and they stayed, and that's when they started schools, right away teaching and they 
just rolled up their sleeves. Actually, the average age of those sisters was about, like 27. Mother 
Joseph was 33. They had two sisters, one was 18, one was 19, who were postulants, just in the 
training period, the bishop for sisters, and the other sister was like 36 or something. So they were 
comparatively very young for that kind of responsibility. But they began the works of the Sisters 
of Providence.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  04:12 
Well, I would say the amount of work they had to do, it would help to be young and healthy. 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  04:19 
Exactly. 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  04:21 
And they had their trials and tribulations. And we have the letters to Mother Joseph and I have-- 
I hope to show you our documentation on Mother Joseph and the sisters. She spent 46 years out 
here in the west, building (literally building) and establishing hospitals, schools. And the whole 
Washington territory as you know at that time, it was not just the state as we know it now. 
Included Montana, Idaho, even up to British Columbia, they established schools, and 
orphanages, and hospitals. That's well documented. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  04:21 
Okay.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  04:56 
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In general, about the order, approximately how many sisters does it have worldwide? And how 
many in this area? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  05:07 
Good question. Okay, very-- Sisters of Providence are very organized group of women. From the 
very beginning, each sister, as she made profession, was given a number. Mother Gamelin is 
number one. Mother Joseph is number 13 by entrance. Sister Rita is 4963, the last sister that 
made profession a couple of years ago in our province is probably at 6060. Of those sisters-- now 
no other sister-- that's a discrete classification. So each sister has a number. Of that number, I 
would say a little less than half are still living. The others are deceased or have transferred out 
the community.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  05:46 
And approximately how many Sisters of Providence are there in this province with the Sacred 
Heart, I believe?  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  05:53 
About 250 today.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  05:54 
Oh, you mentioned about a constitution. 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  06:00 
Right. We have-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  06:01 
--what-- is there rules of how things are set up-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  06:02 
--that's right. It's a way of life, and our constitution is based on that of St. Vincent de Paul. And 
the reason for that is Bishop Bourget sent Mother Gamelin down to visit the sisters at 
Emmitsburg. Now, you know, Mother Seton was canonized just a few years ago. It's that 
community, the Sisters of Charity, who had basic constitutions from St. Vincent de Paul from 
France. Now, the reason why Bishop Bourget wanted them, our sisters, to have that constitution 
as the base is because their works are outside a monastery. They go out where the needs are, 
where the people are. Prior to that time in France and religious communities, the religious were 
in convent, monasteries, praying. So like a prayer and sacrifice. But Vincent saw the needs on 
the outside, and he wanted the country girls and wanted them educated, and he wanted to have 
religious who whose cloisters, he says, were city streets, and they're to go out and working 
among the poor. And so our constitution is based on that, and right now we're in the process of 
revising the constitutions. Periodically, we update, upgrade the constitutions in terms of present-
day living based on the gospel and the charism of our founder. We have a particular order that no 
religious community can accomplish all that there is to accomplish. We have a certain character. 
Mother Gamelin was one who had compassion for those who were not being cared for, the 
unfortunate. So we feel that our community is one who reaches out to those in need, whether it's 
the poor-- could be poor spiritually, poor economically, poor for a lack of justice, whatever. 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  08:10 
And okay, then so this constitution, that's-- says, Okay, we're going to involve ourselves in this 
sort of things, and sets out how we're going to do that, is that-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  08:21 
--right. And for example, I just might read you one beginning line, it says, In the midst of his 
people, God calls and unites us, Sisters of Providence. He sends us to do our part in the mission 
Christ gives to the church. In response to God's call, we proclaim the mysteries of providence 
and of Our Lady of Sorrows, our Mother of Sorrows, to the society of our time. Spurred on by 
our model, the love of Christ entails us, we proclaim Christ, serve him, and give him first place-- 
give first place to the values of His kingdom. It really spelled out the way of life, our spirit, and 
Sisters of Providence.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  09:04 
I see. Okay, that's about the sisters in general. Okay, the structural organization of the order, 
okay, you have what they call it, Mother Superior, or something like that?  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  09:21 
Exactly, and it-- very well organized as far as structure goes, organizationally. On top, you have 
the Superior General. You have a general counsel-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  09:31 
--is that back in Montréal?  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  09:32 
That's right. And you have a general council made up of a small group of sisters. You have a 
Provincial Superior of Sacred Heart. Each province, each province is a geographical location. 
We have nine provinces: in Western Canada, in Eastern Canada, and in the United States in the 
west. We have a province in Chile. And each province has a Major Superior and a provincial 
council. And right now, in our provinces-- and each institution has an administrator, and because 
the sisters do not live within the roof of that institution anymore, they don't have the superior. 
But traditionally, up until about '66, the administrator and the superior is usually the same 
person. But now, the sisters are living in small groups, usually outside where they're working, so 
that they have what they call a coordinator, or someone who is-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  10:31 
So they have their own apartments or?  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  10:32 
That's right, apartments or homes where they live in, if it's a group, a small group, and ideally 
that. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  10:41 
Okay, what sort of woman wants to enter the order, what sort of documents or whatever that you 
need to present? Is it  different now than it was when you entered?  
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Sister Rita Bergamini  10:58 
Yes, I would say it is a little different now because, well, first of all, you have to have a birth 
certificate, baptismal certificate, confirmation certificate. There are references, there is your own 
letter of request. There is family physician health certificate. But now-- that's-- that was in my 
day, and we simply sent the letter, and your credentials were reviewed, in a sense, and you were 
accepted.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  11:35 
To the head of the order in the province? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  11:39 
That's right, in the province, that's right. In the beginning, it's in the province. Now, it's quite 
expensive. When I entered in the mission, I was older compared with the others in my class. 
However, in the February group, we were mostly professional women who entered. In the 
summer groups, there were some of them who, most of the time were from-- directly from high 
school. Now we ask that the sister or the candidate has at least two years experience out of high 
school, either educational experience or a professional experience of some kind. And most of the 
candidates coming now have their professional preparation, or a number of them do. The other 
thing is, we have very close contact with them as associates before they enter, and they have 
certain psychological and kind of evaluative procedures in working with these candidates before 
they enter. It's a little closer contact, so that you don't have people coming in who are young and-
- younger without having a little more understanding of the religious side, and the religious side, 
having a little more understanding of them.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  12:56 
Okay, how long is the officiates and the postulate, and has it changed since you've been in the 
order? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  13:04 
Yes, it has changed some. Now the candidate is given up to about nine years before she makes 
final vows, which is a real leeway in terms of, you know, do I wish to stay or does this 
community wish to-- can keep me in the order, in the Institute. In my day, we had up to about 
three years after first profession. So it was about five years. But-- and there is a lot of difference 
now in the formation program of these young people, they have a lot more individual 
responsibility, and they're out working with the sisters, in a sense. In my day, we were placed in 
a division. In fact, it was right here at Mount St. Vincent, and we were separated from even the 
other professed sisters, and had rather kind of a solitary preparation in the sense of-- our 
programs, we didn't mix with the older sisters, and we were kind of kept apart, even up until the 
sister formation program. It was felt that the sisters should be educated even as a group, because 
of the needs of the sisters, and they were given very special liberal arts and social science 
background and all this because of the works that they would be doing with people. But now 
they're gone. They go out into the mainstream of wherever the college, or the university, or the 
program is that they need, and so that the education is much broader, and it's in sort of the 
mainstream now. Where before, it was rather isolated.  
 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  14:49 
Okay, I guess this isn't particularly all that logical in order, but okay, then I see-- well, I see that 
you're dressed in what is called street clothes. Do-- I take it then you have that option.  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  15:02 
That's right.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  15:03 
But do most of the sisters dress in street clothes or maybe a nurse's uniform, or do they wear 
something like a habit now? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  15:13 
Our sisters are free, according to our constitutions and way of life, to choose either a modified 
habit. We don't use a traditional habit anymore. That traditional habit was worn from 1843 till 
1966. At that point we had a modified habit, which was... And a number of the older sisters have 
elected to wear that. You'll see them here in the residence. This is a retirement center for the 
sisters-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  15:36 
--I was wondering-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  15:42 
--and you'll see them. They have the modified habits, a simple black dress with a little white 
collar, and a little head dress and a veil. But sisters working out of, I would say, usually, the 
retirement centers are pretty much more secular clothes. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  15:59 
Simple style. Most of them-- the traditional habit was very much the long robe with the full 
wimple and veil. Long veil. 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  16:10 
That's right. We didn't have a veil. It was kind of a [microphone interference]-- just like that.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  16:16 
Oh, I see. A cap, like a bonnet.  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  16:19 
I thought it was a nice habit that [inaudible]-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  16:19 
--weren't you at war when you started? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  16:24 
Yes. This is the Provincial Council. These were the administrators wearing it. It was adaptable 
for all sizes, you know, and that's something, you know, when you get 6000 women wearing the 
same dress, that you'd have to consider that. 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  16:49 
Okay, let's see. On the Sisters of Providence in Washington state, in the Seattle area, in 
particular, do you know much about... Oh, some specific events. Let me name some, like the flu 
epidemic after World War One, about 1919. Do you know anything that they specifically did to 
cope with that, or just coping with World War One or Two? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  17:23 
Our sisters were always, from the very beginning, outside as well as inside, and very concerned 
with what was going on in the outside. So, we always had, in my days, working in 1919, but 
later-- always, even until my day at Providence, when I was at Providence Hospital, Seattle, we 
had soup kitchens. We fed the poor. You know, they just would line up at the kitchen. So, yes, I 
think we have chronicles for every institution. And I'm sure if we went to the chronicles at 
Providence Hospital Seattle for 1919, you would find that the sisters were helping the poor. In 
fact, Sister Mary Conrad, who was there at Providence about that time, I found her calling card 
in the archives the other day in the little corner. It says Sister Mary Conrad, outside sister. She 
was concerned about the poor, those who need, those who are not able to make it on the outside. 
And there were a lot of ways that they did that. Sometimes they would write off charity for the 
hospital care. They would prepare layettes for the children. They would assist poor families. 
There were just innumerable ways. They also had, I would say, you know, today we think 
hospice is so new. Well, indeed, our sisters always were involved in hospice. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  18:41 
You mean-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  18:41 
--because they were allowed to take care of the dying. Right. And those who were sick in the 
home, provide medicines for them, and so that they're always-- wherever they were, in hospital 
services or schools, there were always neighbors in need on the outside, and in hospice or 
whatever, trying to meet those needs as best they could, and with the personnel that they had and 
the needs that they had.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  19:05 
There's some, now, sisters trained in psychological... 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  19:09 
Oh, right. We have sisters now-- our own hospitals are now setting up professional hospice 
programs. We have one at Providence Hospital here. If the patient goes home-- I had dinner over 
with one of the sisters, the other night, she was telling us of this gentleman in his 80s who went 
home. And usually, she said, in the hospice program today, when they follow them, they have a 
span of about four months to live. She went down a few blocks to see him, and she said this man, 
you know, is in a dying condition, as far as that goes, so that she's one of the visitors in that, she's 
been trained through hospice. They have a coordinator for the program, and then they follow the 
patient home. He lives by himself. He has a daughter who comes in once in a while or 
something, but it's a matter of concern and care... and spiritual care that's needed.  
 
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Susan Lynn Ehlers  20:09 
Okay, let's-- okay. And how did you wind up being the archivist, the first full-time archivist in...? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  20:09 
Good question. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  20:09 
Even though most of the training was a nurse [inaudible]-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  20:12 
--for two reasons, right? For two reasons. I would say one is, that it was at that time that we were 
just saying, What would you like to do instead of, you know, now, dear, you know, get your 
letter and you're assigned. So the question was, What would I like to do? So since it was asked, 
and since I had served previously seven years in the Provincial Secretariat's office, and you have 
the upstairs and the downstairs, and you had all the old historical records downstairs, and you 
were kept so busy with the active province, personnel, and records for the total province, and 
that's the institutions and the religious personnel, she couldn't possibly get down there, you'd 
think, well, in the summer, I'll go down and do it. So when they asked me, I said, I would like to 
do something with the archives, you know, put them in order. And I was, you know, behind 
about like 99 years in the beginning. And so I presented a proposal to the council on what I 
would envision would be an archive program, which would include you know, the total program, 
the title and the department and so forth, and the holdings, what we include and so forth. This 
was after I had two weeks at the National Archives training program, and in '72, that was 
probably one of the best programs offered in preparation for archivists. Now you have 
professional programs up to a year or two, and they're offering in universities and colleges 
around. But with the American University and the National Archives, they provided an excellent 
program for two weeks for us. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  21:56 
It would be quite a crash course. 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  21:57 
It was crashed, believe me. And so much, you know, in the National Archives gives you federal 
publications on everything you can ever think of, and they brought in specialists every hour on 
the hour, on everything from archives. I still have a little in service jobs in the office that I go to. 
You know, it's inexhaustible. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  22:16 
Well, the idea-- what, what do you do precisely as an archivist? Do you file the correspondings, 
and minutes of the meetings, and what? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  22:31 
I am going to take you on a tour to show you what the archivist really is involved in. That the job 
description of the archivist-- responsibilities of the archivist come under the area of appraisal and 
disposition, accessioning, rehabilitation and repair, arrangement, description, reference, 
publication, and exhibits. So basically, the archivist appraises the present archival holdings in 
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general and discerns what has value; historically, and administratively, and legally, and fiscally, 
and culturally, in the light of the goals and objectives of the province. We have a pretty clear 
scope for the related, for the Sisters of Providence archives. It relates to whatever relates to our 
hospitals, schools, works of the Sisters of Providence, and the Sisters of Providence in this 
province, so that each province would have its own archives. The mother house has the general 
archives, and the accessioning is identifying the records when they come in. Some records need 
to be repaired and that kind of thing, and preserved in a special way with special folders, 
Hollinger acid-free folders, then you have basic responsibility in arranging your archives, in 
describing the archives, and inventories, and indexes, and guides for the researchers. In 
providing references, this is our reference room. We have researchers coming from outside, not 
only the Sisters of Providence, far and wide, using the archives, because we really are principally 
archives of women. Women serving in every facet of administrative, nurse, teaching, pharmacist, 
cook, librarian, historian, every facet of women history. Lately, we've been really involved in 
publications. I put over there several books that we might want to look at that have been 
published. For example, the 100 Years of Providence Hospital here, beautiful history, right there. 
Cornerstone, the First 100 Years of St. Vincent Hospital, it's a big medical center today. Magic 
Valley, the History; this history is [?filtering?] the Yakima area. People coming in doing 
publications, including chapters like-- Lucile McDonald just did a chapter on Mother Joseph in 
Women Who Made the West. Just published by [inaudible]. Had a call the other day and a letter 
follow up from a woman out of Oakland who wants to come and do another pioneer women in 
the West. She wants to do a chapter on Mother Joseph. So there's no end to that kind of 
providing of resources for people interested. And then we've been involved in a number of 
exhibits, working with professional museum people, for example, in the state museum archives 
in Olympia, we have had exhibits here on Mother Joseph. We have one right now in Yakima on 
Mother Joseph. The Olin Art Gallery in Whitman College wanted to have a very special 
Christmas exhibit. They wanted early church kinds of vestments and liturgical pieces, so we 
shared with them chalices and vestments, they had a beautiful Christmas exhibit, they had. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  25:56 
Of any of this kind of thing I was speaking so much about Mother Joseph, any particular stories 
that you know of about her that, should we say, impress you somehow, one way or another, at 
least, more than any others, something you think [inaudible]? 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  26:22 
Just a couple. There's a little tape here that's five minutes I want to play on her. I thought-- do 
you want to hear about Mother Joseph at some point? That's up to you.  
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  26:35 
Yeah, [inaudible] the other story first. 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  26:38 
Okay, what I was going to tell you? I'll tell the story first. Felix de Weldon, who is the sculptor 
of the statue that now stands or kneels in Statuary Hall, was interviewed here at the residence for 
a KMO... K-O-M-O TV program that was on Mother Joseph in April. And he tells us, he said, 
Mother Joseph was tough on the sisters. You know, she go to the chapel early in the morning to 
pray, and she'd ask forgiveness. And he said, An hour later, she was just as tough. You know, 
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she was a woman who had great talent and was very exact. And also with the workers, it's told in 
the in the chronicles of St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, where the men were building, laying the 
bricks. And she would come as the supervisor to go through and she could see that they weren't 
properly laid. And so that night, she would just take it apart and put it back together again. And 
the men would be astounded at the next... And then, the very exciting chapters in our chronicles 
about the sisters. And these are from letters and things that they write, they're current at that 
time, we have over 300 pieces of correspondence, you know, original pieces both in French and 
English. Now I have them translated for the people that are doing research. But-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  28:06 
Is-- in both-- are both French and English the official languages of the order, or?  
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  28:11 
Yeah. Well, because of the French Canadian, a lot of our early documents are in French, like her 
letters [?that went back?]. Some are English later. Not Mother Joseph's however, I think most of 
her French. But later in the chronicles, as the sisters became proficient in English and then taught 
English, and all read for them, they would write in English. So there was that early beginning 
there where they did a lot of corresponding in French. I was going to tell you a little bit about 
one begging tour. They would go out to the mines, for example. They had no funds. They would 
go out and solicit the funds to raise--- to establish the hospitals and take care of the children in 
all-- in the orphanages. So the gentleman that did the script, we have a film on Mother Joseph. 
Nice portrait of Mother Joseph. Asked-- called me one day, and he said, Where was Mother 
Joseph in 1866? And I said, Well, gee, Ivan, I'll have to check. You know, I can't find any letters, 
very many letters for her then. He did most of the script based on the letters of Mother Joseph. 
And so I said, I'll check, so I checked it out, and I said, Well, she was up in the Cariboo mines, 
here at the Canadian border. 300 miles due north on the Cariboo mines, and the sisters were up 
there begging. Well, someone said, Well, weren't they hazardous? And weren't there robbers and 
all? Yes indeed. In fact, coming back from one the begging tours, this stage coach came up, the 
fellow got out and said, Hand me your bags. So everybody in trepidation, you know, throws their 
black bags over in one corner. And after the bags were over there, Mother Joseph turned to the 
boy and she said, Young man, hand me that black bag. And the passengers were, you know, just 
shuddering, because they thought, Just leave it alone. So he went over and picked up the black 
bag, gave it to Mother Joseph, and she had her $200 in it, and that was it. So Mother Joseph, she 
just-- 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  30:16 
--got some things in hand-- 
 
Sister Rita Bergamini  30:18 
--[laughs] that's right. Took things in hand, and, yeah. 
 
Susan Lynn Ehlers  30:20 
They-- so they literally did call these fundraising trips the beg-- 