Monastery of the Ursulines, Quebec

The Ursulines was a religious order of women founded at Brescia Italy in 1535, by St. Angela Merici. The order was the first institute for women dedicated exclusively for their cause. This Roman Catholic religious order was founded primarily for 1] the education of girls and 2] the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint was Saint Ursula.

The beautiful chapel was erected in 1722

Main altar above was created and gilded by Pierre-Noël Levasseur, 1736

and rebuilt in its current form in 1902.

Centre de Conservation de Québec

The Ursuline Sisters were the first Catholic nuns to land in New France/Canada. The history of the Ursulines in Quebec began in Aug 1639, when its first members arrived. The monastery was established under the leadership of Mother St Marie of the Incarnation (1599–1672), an Ursuline nun of the monastery in Tours, and Madame Marie-Madeline de Chauvigny de la Peltrie (1603–1671), a rich widow from Alençon in Normandy. The letters patent sanctioning the foundation issued by King Louis XIII were dated 1639.

The Viceroyalty of New France was the area colonised by France in North America starting with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded Québec in 1608 among the Algonquin people as the administrative seat for New France. Colonisation was slow and difficult. Many settlers died early, because of harsh weather and diseases. In 1630, there were only 103 colonists living in the settlement, but by 1640 there were 355.

Marie de l'Incarnation, the founder of Quebec's Community of the Ursulines, played a key role during New France's first decades. The original monastery, whose construction she oversaw, also housed the colony's first school for young girls. Today this pioneering institution is an impressive teaching complex that has preserved the Ursuline's original mission intact to this day. The Ecole des Ursulines is among North America's oldest schools. Still operating as a private school for both girls and boys, it was founded in 1639.

In Aug 1639, Ursuline nuns from France, including Marie de l'Incarnation who spearheaded the missionary endeavor they'd come to America for, landed at Quebec. Two years later a first monastery was completed, and the Ursulines opened the colony's first school for at first a few Aboriginal girls, then students of French origin. 30 years later, this school was attended only by girls of French background.

The first Ursulines acquired a reputation in embroidery art, know-how they passed down for three centuries. Over time they produced a vast quantity of altar frontals and liturgical vestments in silk, wool and gold thread. Much of this liturgical treasure has survived to the present day.

The monastery had first endured the siege and bombardment of Quebec under William Phips in 1690. During the Siege of Quebec in 1759, the Ursuline monastery was partly destroyed by the shelling. A second siege by James Wolfe in Sept 1759, called the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, was where the garrison of Quebec was defeated by Wolfe's army. After the battle, the French Gov Montcalm who had died there, was buried by night in the monastery chapel. The first English governor Murray used part of the monastery as his headquarters. On that occasion the rations served to the nuns for nursing the wounded and sick saved them from perishing of starvation. The governors and viceroys, both English and French, were always friendly to the institution.

After the city surrendered, the nuns agreed to provide British officers and soldiers with rooms & medical care because Hôtel-Dieu and Hôpital Général were filled to capacity. In exchange they could resume teaching. For a short time, this included English Protestants.

In the C19th, the institution enjoyed tremendous growth. Thanks to the talents of the teaching sisters and the use of modern instructional principles that stressed understanding more than learning by rote, the school earned great acclaim. Other than religious studies, students were taught grammar, French and English literature, arithmetic, geography, history, science, and the arts—music, drawing, painting, and of course embroidery. The Ursulines' school attracted a mostly middle-class clientele.

A boarding school modelled on the monastic way of life. Many of the students were boarders. These young girls adopted a lifestyle similar to that of the cloistered nuns. They slept in dormitories and followed a strict daily schedule. They were imposed a rule of silence at dinnertime and bedtime. They were allowed to have visitors in the parlor so long as the conversation took place behind a screen, the same as for the nuns. The monastic way of life became laxer during the C20th.

A precious historical heritage. The architectural complex of the Ursulines of Quebec monastery was built in phases from the 17th to the 20th. The main wings were laid out around an interior court, in the fashion of C17th French convents. The oldest buildings preserved the style specific to the French Regime—stone walls with white plaster, tin roofs, and small-paned windows.

The sculpted decor inside the monastery is one of only a few remaining examples of church interiors during the New France period. Its oldest section is open to the public, as is the funeral chapel of the founder, Marie de l’Incarnation. A more recent lateral wing is reserved for the Ursuline nuns.
Preserving and presenting their heritage

In addition to their teaching vocation, exercised almost without interruption since the first school began operating, the Ursulines opened a museum to display a part of their collections. However, the institution parted with one of its core traditions recently—now the elementary school admits boys, too. The Museum is housed in the Madame-de La Peltrie house, a building erected in 1836 and enhanced in 1868. This house is an integral part of the Ursuline monastery, the greatest treasure of convent architecture in Quebec, in the province of Quebec and probably in North America. The Museum presents high-quality permanent and temporary exhibitions on three floors highlighting the cultural legacy of the Ursulines.

The Ursuline Museum stages exhibits with different themes each year,

permanent exhibitions in the old refectory and guided visits to the historic chapel.

Today the Ursulines face the same problem as many other religious communities grappling with a shortage of vocations: conservation, development and transmission of their invaluable material and spiritual legacy. With assistance from various working groups, they are trying to find the best way of ensuring that the legacy lives on.

The Ursuline Monastery of Quebec City was founded by a missionary group of Ursuline nuns in 1639 under leadership of Mother Marie of the Incarnation, O.S.U. It is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. Today the monastery serves as the General Motherhouse of the Ursuline Sisters of the Canadian Union. The community there also operates an historical museum and continues to serve as a teaching centre. The complex was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1972.

When they arrived in summer 1639, the nuns studied the languages of native peoples and then began to educate native children. They taught reading and writing plus needlework, embroidery, drawing and other domestic arts. After 3 years spent in the Lower Town of Quebec City, the nuns moved to a new monastery built on ground ceded to them by the Co. of New France. Their first pupils were Indian girls, with whom they succeeded better than the Jesuits with their native boys. The first monastery burned down in 1650, but was soon rebuilt. The community was attacked by the Iroquois in 1661–2, when one of its chaplains, Sulpician Abbé Vignal, was slain near Montreal.

The Constitutions, written by Father Jérôme Lalemant (1593–1673), uncle of the Jesuit martyr Gabriel Lalemant, combined the rules of the two Congregations of Paris and Bordeaux, and were observed until Bishop François de Laval decided in 1681 in favour of the former, which binds its members by a fourth vow to teach girls.

The Quebec Monastery founded new communities at Three Rivers in 1697, Roberval in 1882, Stanstead in 1884, and Rimouski, with a normal school, in 1906, besides sending missionaries to New Orleans in 1822, Charlestown (Boston) in 1824, Galveston in 1849 and Montana in 1893.

Ursuline Convent. This is one of the most impressive religious complexes in Quebec. From the school yard, visit the beautiful courtyard and garden, distinctive stone hallway, and attic where the sisters keep their personal lockers. You can also visit the marvellous chapel. Nestled in the heart of Old Quebec, the Ursuline Chapel is a jewel of history and architecture. Built in 1722, the chapel was rebuilt in its current form in 1902. It houses several treasures, including the carved wood decor, created by Pierre-Noël Levasseur and his workshop from 1726-36. It was the Ursulines who carried out the meticulous work of gilding the entire ensemble with gold leaf from 1736-9. Several art historians agree that this is the most beautiful set of wood sculptures from the New France era to survive in Canada. It is also the only example of religious decor from this period preserved in its entirety.

Chapel of the monastery

The chapel also houses 15+ paintings, most of which come from the Desjardins Fund. This fund, established by abbots Philippe-Jean-Louis and Louis-Joseph Desjardins in the C19th, enabled sending c200 European paintings to Quebec.

Many thanks to Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations.