Devoted to charity
The Grey Nuns congregation was founded in 1737 by Marguerite d’Youville, a widow and mother of two. In 1871, the congregation moved from Old Montreal into the Mother House, designed by renowned architect Victor Bourgeau.
At the time Sisters Fournier and Lemire first lived in the building, it housed three schools and a seniors residence, as well as numerous offices dedicated to the Grey Nun’s local, national and international charitable efforts.
The large edifice was remarkably self-sufficient. It had a pharmacy, infirmary, workshops, sewing rooms and even a dental clinic. “We had almost everything we needed inside here,” Sister Fournier says.
The residents also took care of all the menial jobs. Standing at the top of the building’s main central stairway, Sister Fournier recalls having to clean it every day during her time as a novitiate. “After eating our breakfast, we all had our jobs to do, and that was my job.”
Sister Lemire remembers racing up and down those same stairs at top speed when she was a young student. “When I got to the top, the director would say, ‘Go back down. You forgot your guardian angel!’ ”
Walking down the hall on the third floor, the sisters point out the former locations of classrooms and dormitories for students in the École Normale. Sister Fournier says, after finishing her studies, she decided to enter the novitiate and devote her life to the congregation’s charitable mission. “I felt it was worthwhile to renounce family life and my own career, and to consecrate my life to helping the most poor and helpless.”
After becoming a member of the congregation, Sister Fournier taught for five years in Quebec and 13 years at the Collège de Mazenod in Cameroon. The posting was part of the Grey Nuns’ mission to help improve health care, education and social development in various African nations.
Sister Fournier returned to Quebec in 1985 to assume the role of executive director of the Accueil Bonneau homeless shelter, a position she held until 2006.
Sister Lemire taught for several years, too, but was forced to change vocations when her voice failed her. During her novitiate, she was offered a temporary post with the congregation’s general administration, located at that time in the Grey Nun’s Building. When the secretary she was replacing didn’t return, the position became permanent. “They put me there for two months, and it’s now been 50 years!” she says.