They were to be part of an auxiliary congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Halifax, and prepared for the ministry of household management at St. Francis Xavier College.
[1] Back in the 1880s and 90's, St. Francis Xavier College, established in 1855 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, faced financial trouble because of difficulties in obtaining and keeping a permanent staff for the household needs of the university.
The sisters worked in the household department of St. Francis Xavier, reorganizing, cooking, cleaning, and caring for the sick in the university infirmary.
[2] In 1900 Bishop Cameron expressed a wish to establish a separate congregation for Saint Francis Xavier College from among the sisters of the Antigonish diocese who had entered and trained in Halifax.
[4][5] In 2018 the fifty-eight sisters living at the Bethany motherhouse relocated to the nearby Parkland Antigonish, a senior residence facility.
[6] The Sisters of St. Martha serve in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Alberta[7] as social workers, in spirituality programs and in street ministry.