BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST
On August 10th, 2026, the Feast of St. Lawrence – the Patron Saint of archives – a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Francis J. Spence Pastoral Centre in Kingston marking the start of construction of the new joint Roman Catholic Archives. This project is a partnership between the Archdiocese of Kingston, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, and the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul and will house the archival collections of all three organizations. A two-story addition to the Diocesan Centre will be built to house the new joint archives, including a temperature-and-humidity-controlled environment with high-density mobile shelving for archival storage on the lower level and offices, reading room and work room on the upper level.
His Grace, the Most Rev. Michael Mulhall, Archbishop of Kingston, presided over the ceremony, saying a prayer blessing the project and breaking the ground with a ceremonial shovel-full of dirt along with Sister Gayle Desarmia and Sister Una Byrne representing the Sisters of Providence and Sister Claudette Dionne and Sister Juline Roberge representing the General Council of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph.
Also present to mark the occasion were members of the Archives Project Team Rodney Carter (Archivist, RHSJ St. Joseph Region) and Veronica Stienburg (Archivist, Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul); Kenneth Hall (Chancellor of Temporal Affairs) and Philip Wilson (Director of Cemeteries) from the Archdiocese; and Alshima Mohammed (Shoalts and Zaback Architects).
The shovel used for the groundbreaking is an archival artifact, from the Archives of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul. It was used on April 5th, 1973 by then Governor General Roland Michener to dig a hole for a tree planting at St. Mary’s of the Lake Hospital, in Kingston. We thought it was appropriate to use an Archival artifact for the groundbreaking of the Archives!
After many years of planning, and now with the requisite permits in place, work on the addition to the Pastoral Centre is set to begin imminently. We hope to be able to move the Archives of the Sisters of Providence into the new facility in the Spring of 2027.
