Pastoral Letter from Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick:
September 11, 2026
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In the coming weeks, the religious community of the Daughters of Divine Love will establish a new religious community at Our Lady of Grace Monastery. This is a significant and hopeful moment in the life of both our Diocese and the Monastery. I wish to extend to the Sisters, on behalf of all the clergy and faithful of Antigonish, a warm and heartfelt welcome.
The Daughters of Divine Love are an international religious congregation founded in Nigeria in 1969 by Bishop Godfrey Mary Paul Okoye. Today, the congregation has a presence in many countries throughout the world and numbers nearly 1,000 members. Their apostolic ministry embraces service to those in need, evangelization and the witness of consecrated religious life. The Sisters bring professional experience in healthcare and education, through which they seek to extend their Christian witness into the communities and workplaces in which they serve.
The establishment of this new community is especially meaningful at a time when we recognize the need for renewed missionary energy and for new expressions of religious life within our Diocese. We have been blessed in recent years by the presence and ministry of priests and religious from many parts of the world including Nigeria. The arrival of the Daughters of Divine Love offers another opportunity to experience the universality of the Catholic Church and the richness that comes when people from different cultures and backgrounds unite in the service of the Gospel.
The name chosen for the new community, Our Lady of Grace, is particularly appropriate. We entrust this new beginning to the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin Mary and pray that, through her intercession, the Sisters may become a source of grace, hope and Christian witness for the people of our Diocese.
I am grateful to the leadership of the Daughters of Divine Love for their openness to establishing a community here in the Diocese of Antigonish. I am particularly grateful to the Sisters who have discerned this call and are preparing to make Our Lady of Grace Monastery their home.
May the Lord bless the Daughters of Divine Love, may Our Lady of Grace accompany them in their new home, and may the Holy Spirit guide them as they begin this new chapter of their religious life and service in the Diocese of Antigonish.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Most Reverend Wayne Kirkpatrick
Bishop of Antigonish
