Québec - Vieux Monastère des Ursulines

Just off the Rue St-Louis in Quebec stands the old Ursuline convent. Founded in 1639 by Madame de la Peltrie it provided an education for young girls, Indian as well as French.

The convent's first Mother Superior was Marie de l'Incarnation who came from Tours in France. She made great efforts to get to know the Algonquin and Iroquois Indians, compiling the first ever dictionaries in their two languages.

Surrounded by an aura of mystery during her lifetime and already revered as a saint in the 17th c. she was beatified in 1980.

The convent church is exceptional, being adorned with beautiful early 18th c. altars and statues by Levasseur, an artist very well known in his day. A small chapel next to the church contains the tomb of Marie de l'Incarnation. This has become an occasional place of pilgrimage.

Also full of interest is the convent museum, vividly conveying to 20th c. visitors the realities of convent life in earlier days. The lives of the convent's foundress and its first Mother Superior are thoroughly documented too. Among items of interest preserved in the museum is the skull of the French Général Montcalm who died in battle on the Plains of Abraham.