Peacefully, on Sunday August 14, 2022 at Royal City Manor Care Home, New Westminster, BC, at the age of 94, God called Sister Ethel Devlin home.

Sister Ethel was born September 7, 1927 to Matilda L’Heureux and Bertram Peter Devlin in Vawn, SK; the fourth of 7 children.

Ethel entered the Sisters of the Child Jesus January 15, 1946 in North Battleford, SK. She took the Holy Habit on July 22, 1946 and was given the name Sister Pierre Celestin.  She made first vows August 15, 1948 and final vows August 15, 1953.

Her first mission was at Our Lady of Fatima School in Coquitlam and then she taught in Sechelt and North Battleford. Ethel attended Normal School in Vancouver and graduated from UBC with a B.Ed. She spent many years working with the First Nations people in Babine Lake, BC, St Paul’s, North Vancouver, and Williams Lake, BC. She spent 4 summers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia taking counselling courses where she obtained a Specialist Certificate in 1973 and, from 1967 until 1981, Ethel was stationed in Williams Lake, BC where she was employed by the Department of Indian Affairs as a counsellor.

A new calling came for Ethel in later years. She attended St. Paul’s University in Ottawa from 1981-1983 and obtained her Licentiate and Masters’ Degree in Canon Law.  Ethel served as both canon lawyer and judge for the marriage tribunal in Winnipeg MB for many years before returning to BC. where she served as one of two provincial assistants.  Ethel moved to Chilliwack in 1996 where she assisted then Father Gary Gordon with native ministry as well as doing part-time marriage tribunal work.

Shortly after celebrating her 94th birthday in her little house in Chilliwack, Ethel had a fall and she moved to Royal City Manor where she had good care and made new friends.

Although we will miss her physical presence with us, she lives on in our hearts.

We, the Sisters of the Child Jesus want to say “thank you” to her for all she contributed to our religious family.  “Well done good and faithful servant!”

Ethel is predeceased by her parents, her brothers: Leonard and Fred; her sisters: Elva and Louise and many of her religious sisters.  Left to mourn her passing are her bothers Omer (Carmi) and Lloyd (Ann), numerous nieces and nephews and the Child Jesus family.

Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 am, Monday, August 22, 2022 at St. Paul’s Indian Catholic Church in North Vancouver, BC.