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available to take care of the sanctuary and the altar. Our society has thus been called upon to fill this void. We attend to the upkeep of altar hangings, we purchase ornaments and flowers and we see to the cleaning of the church. Like the Women’s Institutes, we also assist with the maintenance and the furnishing of our schools.

At Christmas time we send clothing and toys to the orphans in the diocesan orphanage [...] We support any campaign aimed at helping worthy causes. (TR)°!

It should be added that the monthly meetings included in their agenda an educational session on religious subjects.

It was during the 1930s that Acadian women in the parish of Bloomfield formed the Saint Anne Club whose activities resembled those of the Altar Women’s Society. Along with other things, they promoted the worship of Saint Anne®. There was also a branch in Rustico.

A certain number of mutual societies were created during the period 1890 to 1945. Although not exactly religious organizations, they were nevertheless only open to Catholics and always under the spiritual direction of a priest. The first of the mutual societies that spread into the Acadian parishes was called the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, a national co-operative organization aimed at providing life insurance benefits. After the establishment of the first branch on the Island in 1893, the movement spread quickly into almost all the Acadian parishes. Soon, however, new mutual societies grew up in the Acadian parishes that were more directly concerned with French- Acadian interests. The Société des Artisans canadiens-frangais (French- Canadian Tradesmen Society) was thus established in Tignish in 1902 and in Rustico in 1903, and, as we have seen, several branches of the Mutual Assumption Society were founded in the province from 1905 onwards. The Acadian Mutual Benefit Association, founded in Tignish in 1905, also succeeded in setting up several branches on the Island.

LIVING ONE’S FAITH

Acadians expressed their faith in ways that went far beyond the important place given to the priest in their religious life and the beautiful churches manifesting their ties to the Catholic religion. In- deed, religion for the Acadians was a way of life imbued with traditional