Native Ministry director Sister Bernadette (L) and Sister Theresa (R) the last nuns in Lebret are retiring (Hustak photo)
By Alan Hustak
Ursuline teachers Bernadette and Theresa Feist, both well known for their volunteer work in the Qu’Appelle Valley for decades are retiring.
Sister Bernadette has been director of the Valley Native Ministry since it was started in 1985. Her sister Theresa moved to Lebret from Winnipeg in 1989 and has been a volunteer with the Too Good to Be Threw second hand store.
“It is too early for interviews,” Sister Bernadette remarked, “We aren’t leaving until next June.” But a come and go tea will be held to mark their retirement in the lunch room at the Lebret Village Office on Oct. 17.
Sister Bernadette is also chair of the Lebret Museum’s board of directors and last year was awarded the Queen Elizabeth (Saskatchewan) Platinum Jubilee medal for her work.
“Sister Bernadette has made a monumental contribution to people of Lebret to the region, and to relations between Indigenous People and the Catholic Church,” Archbishop Donald Bolen said, “When the time comes that she leaves the work she will be greatly missed. Sister Theresa has been a life giving presence to all who have met her. Her spirit has been a great blessing to us all.”
Both nuns grew up with eight brothers and two other sisters on a farm in Berthel in North West Saskatchewan. Both Bernadette and Theresa attended St. Angela’s Academy in Prelate, a Roman Catholic girls school which was once run by the Ursuline Sisters.
Sister Bernadette taught school in Laloche for eight years before moving to Fort Qu’Appelle in 1979 where she was a lay minister at Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church before being named director of the ministry designed to build and heal relations with Indigenous Peoples in Treaty 4 Territory.
She has lived and worked out of Lebret since 1992. Sister Theresa taught in a number of schools throughout the province for 17 years then moved to Winnipeg where she was involved with holistic ministry for another 18 years before coming to Lebret in 1989.
Both will retire to a home in Saskatoon next year where Sister Bernadette plans to write a book about her experiences in Native Ministry.
