Founded in 1697 and completed in 1715, the Ursuline monastery in Trois-Rivières is one of the few French-built buildings to survive the fire of 1908. Although it is now a museum, it is still a working monastery. There are no young women becoming nuns so the 40 last nuns are mostly in their nineties. After several of their nuns became wheelchair-bound, an elevator was installed to help them get up and down the building.
Up until 1960, there were two types of nuns; cloistered and semi-cloistered. Cloistered nuns weren’t allowed to see men so they needed the archbishop’s approval to even go outside to wash the windows and had to look down to prevent from seeing the face of the priest when partaking in communion. Nuns who broke the rules too often were excommunicated. The only exception was when they worked with the sick as nurses because they were the only medical institution for over a hundred years since their founding.
Nuns also had to use new names upon dedicating themselves to the monastery. Take a look at the cemetery and you’ll find that nuns who died before 1960 used a saint’s name or their father’s name to honour them whereas those who died after 1960 could choose to use their own names.
The adjacent school building used to be run by semi-cloistered nuns, but has been sold to a private school. Some nuns still work as receptionists at the school and the monastery in their advanced years. The annex to the monastery will be sold in 2022 because there isn’t a need for such a large complex anymore with the dwindling number of nuns.
The main gallery features stories of individual nuns, their duties, and their favourite place in the monastery. Until recent months, visitors were not allowed to visit the interior of the monastery because it would disturb the nuns’ activities.
A hot water heating system was installed in the 19th century, but instead of taking the standard two weeks it took a whole year to install. Nuns weren’t allowed to see workmen so the workmen had to install bits and pieces here and there for five minutes every two hours when nuns were in between room changes and didn’t need to use the space. It still works today.
