Couvent de la Congrégation de Notre-Dame

In 1858 Father Léon Roy proposed the establishment of a convent in Trois-Pistoles to provide Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Parish with a school for girls. At his own expense, he built a two-story wood structure on land which belonged to the Archdiocese of Québec. With the consent of Bishop Turgeon, Father Roy invited the Congrégation de Notre-Dame to send teachers. Three Sisters accepted the invitation: Sister Saint-Alexis-de-Saint-Joseph (Marie-Marguerite Beaubien), Convent Superior, and Sisters Saint-Narcisse (Claire-Hermine Trottier de Beaubien) and Sainte-Marie-du-Calvaire (Marie-Sophie-Mathilde Chef dite Vadeboncoeur). When it opened there were fifteen registered boarders, fifteen day students; twenty more were added during the year. In 1863, because the Sisters of Jésus-Marie de la Pointe-Lévis were looking to open a house in the country for Sisters with heath issues, Archbishop Baillargeon of Québec requested that the Congregation cede either the Rimouski, Kamouraska or Trois-Pistoles convent for this purpose The one in Trois-Pistoles was the most recent and was therefore closed to fulfill this new function.

NB: This text was written using documents found in the archival holdings in our possession and does not constitute a complete administrative history of the teaching establishment.