Archives gallery
This section provides access to all electronic archive documents which make up the virtual exhibit. With the help of search filters and criteria, browse among a variety of documents preserved by Archives Services, such as manuscripts, photographs, school text books, films, architectural drawings and much more. The large amounts of documents reflect the fascinating history of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame’s work in education in a multitude of locations and throughout centuries.
Sister Marthe Charron gives an overview of "La cuisine raisonnée" written by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.
After pointing out that this publication has been used by generations of women, Sister Charron mentions that it was used not only for cooking but for running the house in general. It was well adapted to the local people, a manual that met the needs of the teachers studying domestic science at Saint-Pascal de Kamouraska. La cuisine raisonnée has always been more than a cookbook; it touched on many topics including food chemistry. It even laid the foundation for dietetics.
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Sister Denise Lamarche goes through a typical day at the Mother House of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in the 1950s.
The day began between 5 and 6 a.m., the Sisters went to the chapel for a half-hour of silent prayer or meditation before common prayer and then Mass.
Breakfast was eaten in complete silence. The nearly 600 residents of the Mother House did not take more than a half-hour to eat breakfast, lunch or supper. During lunch, from a rostrum, a Sister would read from a spiritual work, the necrology of the day (list of the Sisters of the Congrégation who had died) and from the martyrology (the life of saints). After lunch, there was recreation followed by a period of spiritual reading.
Supper was preceded by the rosary and the Little Office of Our Lady during which texts about Mary were read.
After supper, there was recreation followed by evening prayer. The Sisters then entered into Grand Silence, a period of recollection, in preparation for the night.
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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.
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Sister Denise Lamarche recalls events and ceremonies at the Congrégation de Notre-Dame during important annual feasts around the 1950s.
She remembers that on New Years Day the parlour of the Mother House would be bustling. The Sisters welcomed their relatives there at a time when they did not go to visit family. On January 25, as well as on the 25th of each month, a procession was made to the Infant Jesus of Prague.
The month of May was the month of Mary and it was celebrated throughout the Congregation. The Sisters would bring the students to the grotto erected near the school; the rosary would be recited and texts would be read about Mary. At the Mother House, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was celebrated every day.
In June, a procession was made for Corpus Christi. Parishes where there were Sisters of the Congregation participated in the event. They prepared the altar of repose, dressed little girls like angels and invited young girls making their First Communion to scatter flowers in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
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Sister Thérèse Boilard recalls the history of Collège Notre-Dame-de-Bellevue of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame and shares some of her memories.
She points out that it was in 1864 that the Congrégation, already present in Saint-Roch, Québec, took possession of a piece of land in Sainte-Foy. Ten years later, about 50 people, Sisters and students, moved into a building that had been under construction since 1871.
In 1937, by virtue of the affiliation with Université Laval, the convent became Collège Notre-Dame-de-Bellevue. Courses began at the elementary school level and went up to Philosophy II. Sister Boilard gives a tour of the building through pictures. She mentions the parlours, the auditorium which could seat up to 500 students, and the library. She remembers with great sadness the closing of the Collège in 1996 and cites, with emotion, an extract from a text in this regard.
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Sister Cécile Duplain recalls the very beginning of the missions of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in Central America.
She leaves Canada with four other Sisters on June 23, 1962. During their stay in Cuernavaca, in the suburbs of Mexico, they study Spanish as well as the mentality, customs and life of the Latin American people. They arrive in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, on October 13, 1962.
In the beginning, their work is not very well defined but there is question of opening a centre for training catechists at the diocesan level and a primary school in a poor area of Tegucigalpa. Meanwhile, they establish contact with the people and open a kindergarten in January 1963 in a small house rented by the Sisters. This kindergarten closes in August 1963 because the Catechetical Training Centre in the building of the archdiocese is almost complete and construction of the San Martín de Porres Primary School and the Sisters residence is scheduled to begin shortly.
In Tegucigalpa, other commitments must soon be taken on: social and Christian formation of children and youth, preparation for the sacraments, liturgical animation, the reorganization of the Legion of Mary, Young Female Catholic Workers, Catechist Training College, participation in the parish Caritas and much more. The arrival of other missionaries makes it possible to open new missions in Honduras, Guatemala (1964), Chili (1965) and El Salvador (1988). All this brings to light the importance given to the needs of the Church in these different areas.
Over these last years, Latin-Americans have joined the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. There are 26 Sisters of the Congregation in the region of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (region of Central America) sixteen of whom are natives of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
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Sister Madeleine Juneau recalls that Maison Saint-Gabriel was a farm before it was turned into a museum. The historian Jacques Lacoursière underlines the importance of Saint-Gabriel Farm, he mentions how it was the mère nourricière of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame as were the other eighteen farms used to provide for the needs of the Congrégation.
Saint-Gabriel Farm, also called the smallholding of Point St-Charles, was worked for two and half centuries, that is, until 1956. Marguerite Bourgeoys first entrusted it to Catherine Crolo, who had come from France with her. Sister Crolo, in becoming the first farm manager, was one of the first women entrepreneurs of the colony. Over the decades, a total of 86 Sisters managed the smallholding.
The farm produce helped feed the Sisters of the Mother House in Montreal as well as the young girls in the suburban schools where the Sisters taught for free. The Sisters on these farms could rely on hired labourers for help.
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Sister Lucie Bondeau recounts her experience teaching Home Economics at the University of Ottawa.
She mentions how it was at the invitation of the Oblate Fathers that the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame set up a Home Economics Department in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa.
She mentions that she arrived during the 1958-1959 academic year and she taught Physics, Basic Cuisine and Food Chemistry. She speaks more specifically about her experience teaching Textile Chemistry. It was an enormous challenge because the course had to be created from beginning to end. She underlines the degree to which her trust in God was a precious asset in the accomplishment of this task.
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Sister Thérèse Cloutier recounts the history of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame focusing on its organization and the evolution of its mission.
She recalls how, in the beginning, Marguerite Bourgeoys dreamt of a community of secular girls. In her eyes, this community would practise religious life like the women in monasteries but without being cloistered, with no distinctive habit and by going to the places where people lived.
The official authorizations arrived successively: in 1669 from Bishop de Laval, in 1671 from King of France Louis XIV and in 1698 with the Rules of the Congrégation. It was then that they were able to hold the first ceremony for the profession of vows.
In 1899, the Congrégation had approximately 1,000 Sisters spread out over several different areas. To maintain overall unity, the Mother House constituted a place for holding assorted meetings and a place for renewal and formation.
With respect to organizational structures, the 1860s were a pivotal period. The General Administration was implemented under the direction of the Congregation Leader and her council.
In 1950, the Congrégation numbered over 5,000 Sisters in the United States, Canada and Japan. It had 211 educational institutions. During the following decade, in the wake of Vatican Council II, the Congrégation revised its Rules and Constitutions and adapted to the times by expanding its mission of education to include other fields of ministry besides teaching.
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Sister Anne Leonard recalls the origins and extent of the presence of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in the United States.
The first foundation dates back to 1860 in Bourbonnais, Illinois. The Congregation ran a school there for 147 years and it was the only religious community in Illinois that taught in a public school. The Congregation also worked in Kankakee, Illinois, in Portland, Maine and in Saint Albans and Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. At one time, it was present in fifteen States. Today, it is present in thirteen. The Community novitiate was in Chicago.
The American Sisters want very much to maintain ties with their companions from other countries of the Congregation. They promote unity in diversity which is very important to them.
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Sister Lorraine Caza outlined the major events of her life in the Congrégation de Notre-Dame since her entrance in 1956.
She spoke first of the novitiate where, withdrawn from the rest of the world, she experienced a profound deepening. In 1967, she began a Masters Degree in Theology which she completed in five years at the Dominican College in Ottawa. She then obtained a doctorate from lÉcole biblique de Jérusalem: the topic of her dissertation was My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?
After her return to Canada she taught theology in Ottawa, becoming dean of the faculty in 1987. From 1996 to 2006 she completed two five-year mandates as Congregation Leader, formerly called Superior General, of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.
In November 2006, freed from her administrative responsibilities, she took a three-month sabbatical in a Swiss monastery. Since then, she has been at the House of Prayer in Longueil giving retreats, sessions, recollections and consultations, as well as accepting invitations from outside the Congregation."
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Sister Annette Boisvert and Ms. Lise Jacques discuss the origins of uvre des Tabernacles and give a brief description of their mission.
Oeuvre des Tabernacles draws its inspiration from the work of Jeanne Le Ber (1662-1714), a recluse at the Congrégration de Notre-Dame, who made liturgical vestments and linens as well as clothing for poor children. The Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame carried on her work of making liturgical vestments.
In 1866, the Bishop of Montreal, Bishop Ignace Bourget, gave canonical status to Oeuvre des Tabernacles. Today, the Sisters no longer make liturgical vestments; rather, they salvage objects of worship from churches that are closing. Sister Boisvert gave a tour of the workshop and displayed vestments and vessels that are being repaired and restored. She pointed out that, in 2008, 3,412 items were given to 110 missionaries in 30 countries. Each priest generally receives an alb, a chasuble, a chalice, a ciborium, a candleholder, an altar cross, a small holy water font, an aspergillum, cruets, a paten and liturgical linens.
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Sister Madeleine Juneau mentions that the purpose of Maison Saint-Gabriel is to remember and to commemorate what happened here over the past 300 years. For the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, who acquired the property in 1668, the objective is not to relive the past but to meet the first people to arrive in Ville-Marie, among whom are the Filles du Roy (Kings Wards).
Rooms and objects in the house are as they were in the beginning. Life in the XVIIth century is recreated through such daily tasks as kneading bread and making butter. One of the distinctive features of the museum is its guided tour.
No one is left on their own, each visitor is sure to leave with a better knowledge of history after coming into contact with such evocative objects.
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Sister Solange Monfet recalls her experience as a missionary of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in Africa.
She recounts how she arrived in Cameroon with five other companions in 1970. She and three other companions worked at the collège de Makak. At that time, Cameroon had been an independent and developing country for ten years. Young people wanted to complete studies that would give them access to the government positions left vacant by the departure of the Europeans.
But given the African culture at that time, in which women did only domestic work, it was very difficult for the students to imagine that a Sister, even though a member of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, was able to give the same quality education as a man. The Sisters took up the challenge.
The Congrégation had chosen Cameroon in order to give girls easier access to education. At the same time, it wanted to show that women could take their place in society. Over the years, there has been considerable progress in this regard.
Sister Monfet points out that, in addition to teaching, the Sisters have supported many other developments. They have encouraged the activities of youth groups such as World Youth. They have supported the development of such projects as building huts for those suffering from leprosy and, with the financial aid of uvres du Cardinal Léger and Development and Peace, they have supported drilling projects for artesian wells. Given the success of the latter project, the Cameroonian government became involved and, today, almost all villages have wells.
Sister Monfet concludes by mentioning that the Congrégation was involved in the promotion of cooperatives to set up mills. This experience proved to be very beneficial because the number of mills throughout the country multiplied.
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ister Marcelle Corneille relates, as she experienced it, the renewal of music education at the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.
When religious communities were contributing to music education in their colleges, the Congrégation sent Sister Corneille to Toronto to take a new course in Orff’s music pedagogy. At the same time, she became initiated into the fundamental principles of the development of musical aptitudes in children according to Maurice Martenot of France.
In the 1960’s, during the Quiet Revolution which fostered music education for everyone, l’École normale de musique of the Congrégation became a centre for research in music education.
In conclusion, Sister Corneille recalls how in December 1980, at the invitation of a colleague from Toronto, she set up the Quebec chapter of the Music for Children – Carl Orff Canada organization. She is delighted that there are still Quebec members today; she sees it as a very good way of broadening perspectives and of rubbing shoulders with people from different cultural backgrounds.
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Sister Lorraine Caza presents the origins, philosophy and activities of Notre-Dame House of Prayer, sponsored and run by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.
In the 1970s, during a period of great change, the Congregation responded to the concerns of its members regarding prayer. A house of prayer was opened first in Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne and was later located in Longueuil. On the initiative of Sister Lise Desrochers, a monastery was created on the street, a place of prayer open to the public.
Twelve years ago, the house was purchased from The Presentation Brothers, who were predominantly Irish. It offers courses and retreats; one could even take a years sabbatical there. The building has eighteen bedrooms. The team is made up of eight Sisters and five lay people.
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After living in Ville Marie for two years, Marguerite Bourgeoys promises to erect a chapel. After she wins the support of all the important people in the area, she finds a beautiful site for the chapel on the shore of the river. She persuades the people of Montreal to collect stones and to volunteer in helping to build the chapel, while making sure to compensate them for their work. It is Maisonneuve himself who orders the cutting down of the very first trees that are brought to the site.
At this time, Montreal is a Jesuit mission; in 1657 the Sulpicians arrive and replace the Jesuits. The new Sulpician superior refuses Marguerites request for permission to build the chapel.
The Sisters of the Congrégation use this place to celebrate important events and to renew their promises to God, given the fact that they do not pronounce vows until the end of the XVIIth century.
In 1774, the chapel is completely destroyed by fire. At the end of the Seven Years War, Montreal is no longer governed by French Catholics but by English-speaking Protestants. The British then set up camp on the shore of the river. Despite this, those in charge of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel and the Sulpicians decide to rebuild it.
At the beginning of the XIXth century, given the large number of English-speaking Catholics, the Sulpicians, who do not want to lose their faithful, celebrate Mass in Latin, give the sermon and hold assemblies in English. The site becomes the cradle of the English Catholic community in Montreal.
In 1847, English-speaking Catholics build their own place of worship, St. Patricks Church. Since Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel seems a bit neglected, Bishop Bourget promises that, if the typhoid fever is contained in Montreal, he will donate a new statue to replace one that was stolen, resume pilgrimages to the chapel and commission a painting commemorating the miracle of the eradication of the typhoid fever. He fulfills his three promises in 1849. The pilgrimages resume and continue until the 1950s when religious faith begins to decline in Quebec.
For more information, see the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North…
Sister Patricia Simpson presents the oldest object in the chapel, the statuette of Notre Dame de Bon Secours. Since 1655, Marguerite Bourgeoys has wanted to build a chapel. But, upon their arrival, the Sulpicians suspend the construction project. Yet, in 1655, Marguerite has already collected material to build the chapel. In 1658, she journeys to France to recruit companions. When she returns, she discovers that all the material has disappeared. Before travelling back to France in 1670, she arranges to have a small building erected on this spot.
During her visit to France, Marguerite meets with the Baron de Fancamp who had participated in the founding of Ville-Marie. She asks him for something for the chapel that she is still planning to build. He offers her this statuette of Our Lady which is more than 100 years old. Both the statuette and the oak tree from which it was carved were associated with miracles. It is a very small statue which is kept in a reliquary.
Marguerite returns to Ville-Marie with the statue in 1672. At first it is kept by the Congregation and then put on display in a small wooden chapel. When Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel is completed in the 1670s, the statue is given a place of honour by the Community.
In 1754, the chapel burns down, but the statue is spared. It is kept temporarily in Notre-Dame Church until the chapel is rebuilt. At the end of the 1830s the statue is stolen and is found only many years later, in an attic of the Congregation.
The statuette is kept in the Chapel near the tomb of Marguerite Bourgeoys. (When the tomb was located in the Mother House of the Congregation, prior to 2005, the statuette was taken to the Chapel each year for the devotions in honour of the Virgin Mary during the month of May.) Pilgrimages to Bon Secours Chapel begin in the 17th century. May devotions in honour of Our Lady begin to take place in Montreal in the 19th century when a number of people start to come together and recite the rosary every evening followed by Benediction. For centuries, the Sisters of the Congregation have gone to the Chapel every May 24th.
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Sister Patricia Landry recounts the evolution of the Notre Dame Secretarial College run by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.
She recalls how it all began back in 1907 in Pointe Saint-Charles, under the direction of Sister Saint Catherine of the Rosary. A secretarial class was offered to young women to provide them with employment opportunities other than working in factories for little wages. This course, taught at the Mother House on Sherbrooke Street the following year, soon became recognized by business people in Montreal who admired it for its quality training.
Through the eyes of Sister Saint Catherine, the Secretarial College needed to contribute to the development of women; this was equivalent to what today we call liberating education. The Sisters of the college encouraged the students to continue their studies. McGill, Concordia and Université de Montréal gladly admitted them given the complementary classes they had taken at the Congrégation.
At the College, the students had an opportunity to learn not only skills but values as well. They learned to be conscious of the needs of others and to share with the less fortunate. For example, beginning in 1937, they participated in a Christmas baskets activity.
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