Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal

The Congrégation Notre-Dame was a women's religious order created in France by Pierre Fourier and Alix Le Clerc, committed to education.[3] Following a spiritual experience in 1640 and a long search for a place within the more conventional contemplative women's religious communities, Bourgeoys joined the externe Congregation at Troyes. As Bourgeoys helped in the Congregation of Notre Dame, she had a vision of a new kind of religious community for women, who would be active and among those who needed their help, and not cloistered in a convent.[3] She modeled it after that of the Canonesses of Mattaincourt.

In 1653, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, founder of Ville Marie (Montreal), visited Troyes, and invited Bourgeoys to go to Ville Marie to teach; she set out in June of that year, and upon arrival devoted her time to a variety of works of mercy. She opened her first school in April 1657, but soon returned to France to recruit assistants; four companions joined her.[4]

The Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal convent from rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste, ca. 1684-1768, Montreal, Quebec

By 1665, the Congregation consisted of Bourgeoys and three other sisters living in Montreal; they taught in a stone building known as the "stable school" established in 1658.[5] The Convent was near the corner of Notre-Dame and Saint Paul Street, in what is now called Old Montreal. As revealed by its architectural plans, the early convent was a private space, secluded from the public life of Montreal. The convent was placed deeply within its own terrain, and its separation from public life was protected by the Hôtel Dieu and the walls that surrounded it.[6] The sisters were provided protection and seclusion whilst surrounded by the colony's merchants and more rowdy inhabitants, such as soldiers and labourers.

Maison Saint-Gabriel

The Maison Saint-Gabriel today

In October 1662, Maisonneuve conceded land in Pointe-Saint-Charles to Bourgeoys in order to establish a farm that would feed the Congregation and support its work.[7] In 1668, Bourgeoys purchased the adjoining Maison Saint-Gabriel farm which the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame operated for nearly 300 years. It was temporary home for some of the King's Wards, also called the King's Daughters, or Filles du Roi. On the property, the sisters produced food and products to support the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, new settlers and others in need.[8]

Today the property has been developed as a living museum of farming and historic times. The property, outbuildings and grounds have been restored and expanded, and the museum houses some 15,000 artifacts recreating the feel of the house from the 17th and 18th century.[9]

The Congregation received civil recognition in 1671 from King Louis XIV[4] and was granted official status by the Catholic Church in 1698: some 40 years after its creation and only two years before the death of Marguerite Bourgeoys.

In 1675 Bourgeoys built a chapel dedicated to Notre Dame de Bon Secours. To insure greater freedom of action Mother Bourgeoys founded an uncloistered community, its members bound only by simple vows. They aided the pastors in the various parishes where convents of the order had been established, by instructing children. Although the community had received the approbation of the François de Laval, Bishop of Quebec, the foundress became very desirous of having the conditions of non-enclosure and simple vows embodied in a rule. To confer with the bishop, who was then in France, she undertook a third journey to Europe. She returned the next year, and resisted the many attempts made in the next few years to merge the new order in that of the Ursulines, or otherwise to change its original character.[10]

Houses were opened at Pointe-aux-Trembles, near Montreal, at Lachine, at Champlain and Château Richer. In 1685 a mission was established at Sainte Famille on the Island of Orléans.[10]

The difficulties of establishing a non-cloistered religious order for women in 17th century New France were considerable. At the time, the church preferred the regimen of the cloistered nun behind the walls of a convent.[11] Before 1698, the first two bishops of Quebec, François de Laval and Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, were ambivalent about the Congregation, failing to understand their need to remain uncloistered. However, they did recognize the societal need for traveling teachers; they counted on Bourgeoys and her sisters to reach the small and dispersed population of Canada in these early years. They were needed to take education to the children between Quebec and Montreal and beyond. If women were to be the educators, Laval and Saint-Vallier reluctantly recognized the sisters needed to be able to travel and live outside a convent. The sisters were allowed to live a relatively uncloistered life.[3]

By 1694 Bishop Saint-Vallier sent the Congregation a new constitution that imposed more restrictions. The sisters had enjoyed certain freedoms for approximately forty years, and resisted more restrictive and conventional rules.[12] The constitution afforded the Congregation the right to officially declare vows, necessary to gain legitimacy in the frontier society and grow as an organization. It required the sisters to be obedient to and report directly to the bishop of Quebec. The document also required them to take solemn vows, attacked their more secular activities in the convent, and instituted the requirement of a dowry to be donated by new sisters. After a few years of resistance, in 1698 the sisters had to accept Saint-Vallier's constitution; it had traditional requirements long enforced in Europe.

The nuns were to take vows, including a traditional one of stability. This meant that women could not leave the convent at will. The constitution created a hierarchical divide, also traditional, between the women who had taken their vows and those who had not. The bishop imposed payment of a dowry by new recruits. In practice, it prevented attracting women of the lower classes, whose families generally did not have money to contribute.

While the new constitution enforced more traditional conditions, the sisters of the CND maintained some seventeenth-century practices. Many of them continued to teach, travel and lend their expertise to other parishes across New France.

Schools were essentially administered by the Church, eighteenth-century formal education focused on behavioural aspects, it was about having a civilized Christian population, Cultivation of the human heart was the first step in the education process. Christian moral principles were taught to the children who attended religious schools in New France.[13] Nearly all the teachers in New France belonged to the clergy, as evidenced by the 1727 ordinance issued in Canada. This document stated that all teachers in the colony needed approval from the Bishop of Quebec. Teacher's methods and material were closely monitored by their parish's priest.[14]

The formal education system on the colony of Ile Royale was however non-existent. Founded in 1713, Ile Royale was located in areas of the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. While preparing the colony's establishment in 1713, the minister of the marine never once discussed the establishment of schools. He believed that the Récollets missionaries would open colonial parish schools. By the mid 1720s, there were still no established schools in a small but significant community of over 300 children.[15] Conflicting opinions between local and royal officials led locals to take the matter of education into their own hands. Imperial officials refused the commisonnaire-ordonnateur Mézy's demand to establish a public catholic school in Louisbourg.

Concerned about the ethic and moral teaching of girls, Mézy and other local officials turned to Montreal's Congrégation Notre Dame. The commissaire-ordonnateur suggested that a delegation of religious sisters from the Congrégation should be sent to help educate girls. Finally in 1727 Marguerite Roy and two sisters were sent from Montreal to oversee the teaching of girls in the colony. Very shortly after arriving they established a school and took 22 girls under their wing. The bishops of Quebec saw this as an urgent cause, particularly Bishop Saint-Vallier showed great concern about the moral instruction and upbringing of girls raised in the colony.[15] However, financial difficulties complicated their task, as they needed to purchase a house in which they would teach. The sisters sold straw pallets to soldiers in order to supplement their income. On the other hand, the religious brothers were much wealthier, and their teaching benefited from more resources and superior infrastructure. Ile Royale was a poor religious community, low income, debt and budget issues were a consistent problem for the sisters of the Congrégation Notre-Dame well into 1753.[16]

Despite the restricted the number of girls admitted by the sisters, many girls from the colony of Ile Royale were instructed successfully by sisters from the Congrégation Notre-Dame. Consistent with the era, instruction in morality and Christian ethics remained more important than education in reading and writing. Both female day students and boarders benefited from the school. Along with religious obligations mandatory in all parish run schools in New France, religious texts permitted girls to learn how to read and write. Some math was also taught, although limited.[17] The education given to girls under the sisters of Congrégation Notre-Dame in Ile Royale was considered adequate by the standards of the era. Students of the school had to follow a consistent weekly schedule.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, missions were established in various parishes of the Provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and in the United States; also many academies and schools were opened in the city of Montreal.[10]

In 1908 the Notre-Dame Congregation founded Notre Dame Ladies College, now known as Marianopolis College.[18]

In 1981, a community was established in Troyes, Marguerite Bourgeoys' native city. A second community in France was formed in 1989 in Estissac, where the sisters established the Marguerite Bourgeoys Cultural Center.

In 1926 Waterbury Catholic High School, a girls' high school in Waterbury, Connecticut was founded. In 1975, it was merged with Holy Cross High School (Connecticut), administered by the Congregation of Holy Cross. The building then became the diocesan Sacred Heart High School. As of 2018, ten sisters of the congregation still ministered in the Waterbury area, in parishes, schools, a prison and a hospital.[19]

As of 2019, there are about 830 members of the congregation. The motherhouse is in Montreal.[20]

• Peter Fourier
• Maison Saint-Gabriel
• François de Laval
• Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Congregation of Notre Dame de Montreal". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

• Gray, Colleen (2007). The Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Superiors, and the Paradox of Power, 1693-1796. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Simpson, Patricia (2005). Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Congregation of Notre Dame, 1665-1700. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press

• Congregation of Notre Dame - Official website
• Schola Ministries - A CND Ministry