Bishop Provencher who had been in St. Boniface since 1818 was still looking and hoping for religious sisters and brothers for his diocese. He had been trying to get some for over 20 years, but always without any results. In 1843 he had to go to Montreal and before leaving, he once again begged his Creator telling Him how important it was to have religious men and women to help him. He also spoke to people he knew and was told to see Bishop Bourget, the bishop of Montreal and then someone had suggested he see the Grey Nuns for they never refused anyone.
On September 13, 1843, the first missionary of the North West, Bishop of the Red River mission, dressed in a worn and used cassock, went to the Grey Nuns of Montreal, and although he was very aware of the inconveniences he was asking the women by their coming to St. Boniface, he pleaded his case to the Mother Superior. She asked him if he could come the following week, and she gave him an exact appointment: date and time and told him that the nuns would be there and that he could ask this to them himself.
The following week, Bishop Provencher went again to the Grey Nuns: (I’m borrowing the next two paragraphs from the book by Father Duchaussois, o.m.i. who has written a lot about the religious communities.)
“When I left the Red River mission, I was saying to God.“Dear Lord, you know that I need religious nuns. Grant that you lead me to the house where you will let me find some.” I left full of confidence that I’d be granted this request which I would make to them: which one of you would be ready to come to the Red River mission?
Not one replied; however, when Mother Superior suggested it would be a great sacrifice, everyone replied” “I am ready; send me!”
The Mother Superior walked the Bishop to the door and said “Four nuns will go in the spring. We’ll choose them and prepare them as well as can be. But you, also must take very good care of them.”
The four chosen who were to respond to Bishop Provencher’s needs were: Sister Valade, superior; Sister Labrave, Sister Coutlée, and Sister Lafrance. They left April 24, 1844 from Montreal to St. Boniface. Bishop Provencher was supposed o leave with them, but fell ill. This was a first disappointment for the sisters. A trip with various inconveniences as this one proposed to be, would not be easy. After 59 days, and 78 portages, the sisters finally arrived in St. Boniface on June 21 (the shortest night of the year) towards one o’clock in the morning. Bishop Provencher had asked that the bells be rung in the St. Boniface church to show the joy as well as a welcoming which the residents of St. Boniface felt.
The Grey Nuns were shown where they’d stay: a small house built in 1828, not too comfortable, without any furniture, nor shelves, nor cupboards, nor wardrobes, etc. After the sisters looked around and saw this situation, they burst out laughing and said, “We’ll use the big trunk as our table, and we’ll eat either kneeling or sitting.” Also there were no beds…These comments were given to me by the nuns themselves.
One cold day in winter, Bishop Provencher went to see the nuns and when he realized that the temperature inside the house was 40 below zero, and realized that everything was frozen, he invited them to live in his residence in an area especially reserved for them.
Two years later, in 1846, Bishop Provencher had a nice convent built for them. It still exists today as a museum and it is said to be the oldest building in the Canadian West.
A few words of explanation are needed here: All the framework of this building was made of logs and built by Amable Nault, husband to Juliette Lagimodière and son-in-law to Marie-Anne Gaboury. Over the years that building was covered over by other construction products and today it has served as a museum for many years. See photo below:
Marie-Anne Gaboury was very happy to see the arrival of Bishop Provencher; he was of her race, but she was more delighted to see the arrival of the Grey Nuns. She’d often go to visit them and to bring them food.
One week after their arrival, they were at work beginning by visiting the sick; two by two, they’d go into each tent to help out. Also by July 22, 1844, they began school classes for 53 Saulteux Métis including some Sioux. One must not forget that in all these experiences, there was always the element of culture, of languages, of traditions, the ever present isolation, great distances and loneliness, plus the northern cold which the sisters had to face.
In my opinion, the Grey Nuns and the Oblate priests are the reason that the Canadian West and the Canadian North-West developed so rapidly. Schools were built, churches also, hospitals, convents; people were taken care of in various ways. The year 1844 was the beginning of more than 170 years of service in the West. Still today, there are nuns who offer their services to the needy. Many hospitals built by the religious orders when no one could afford to build them were sold over the years to various municipalities for $1.00.
You may wonder how many young people chose to work as a Grey Nun? According to statistics, I found that many thousands did. If we multiply this number by 50 years of service, the answer represents many, many years of service to the population. The Grey Nuns had many institutions in St. Boniface, but that is only one part; if we mention all other institutions in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the North-West Territories, there would be over 70 communities.
In 1995 when we were in Inuvik, Sister Denise Hemond had shown us the town church. Brother Larocque who had only a few years of primary education challenged all government engineers who had approved the new church. It is a church built in the form of an igloo built over a smaller igloo church, and it has withstood over 40 years of climate change. We went to a morning weekly mass there and could not believe our eyes.
Inuvik is very far north and for the priest , the religious men and women, we wondered how these people, the first European arrivals could live there year round. Certainly they endured all these sacrifices for the love of God.
In September 1987 when Pope John Paul 11 visited the North, we went to Fort Simpson, and there I saw the nuns from Inuvik, and they were already wearing their Inuvik winter coats. Father Mousseau had told me that as of August 15, it froze every night.
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