Administrative practices of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame - Bureau des études: interview with Sister Rolande Savoie

Sister Rolande Savoie speaks about the history of the Bureau des Études of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame and outlines some of its activities.

Sister Savoie mentions that it was at the request of the Bishop of Montreal, Bishop Bourget, that the Congregation created, in 1857, its Bureau des Études which was first entrusted to Mother Saint-Victor.

The personnel of the Bureau des Études had many responsibilities. They had to visit all the houses in the provinces and then write a report on each house and each professor, both religious and lay, and submit it to the Congregation Leader and her council. The Bureau also approved exams for the primary and secondary schools, the arts-sciences courses and the business courses.

She also talks about the period when the Sisters of the Congregation followed government requirements to obtain a teaching permit from the State. The Bureau supervised this undertaking.

Sister Savoie points out that in 1985, when the Mother House of the Congregation moved from its Sherbrooke Street location to the former Institut Pédagogique on Westmount Avenue, it was the Bureau personnel who took on the task of reducing the library content by offering books to the Mother House employees.

She concludes by adding that the school archives of the Congregation are now, in part, at the current Mother House and, in part, at the Marguerite-Bourgeoys Province Administrative Centre. Sister Béatrice Granger manages this department.