Congregation of the Presentation of Mary

This congregation, devoted to the education of young girls, was founded in 1796 at Theuyts, Ardeche, France, by the [Blessed] Mother Marie Rivier. The mother-house is now at Saint-Andeol, Ardeche. The superior general is the Mother Marie Ste-Honorine. The provincial house in Canada was founded on 18 October, 1853, by Mgr Jean-Charles Prince, first Bishop of St. Hyacinthe. It is also the mother-house and the religious make their vows there. The first six religious, with Mother Marie St-Maurice as superior, settled at Ste-Marie de Monnoir, where Rev. E. Crevier, pastor of this parish, had prepared a convent for them. They opened a boarding-school and a class for day pupils; both of these are very prosperous at the present time. In 1855 the novitiate was transferred to St. Hugues (in the county of Bagot), and in 1858 it was definitively located at St. Hyacinthe in a convent which was occupied up to this time by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. This house was of insufficient accommodation and the community was obliged to erect, not far from the seminary, a large building of which they took possession in 1876. The house occupied since 1858 then became an academy. Later it was necessary to add a large annex to the first building. The students were installed there in 1907. The provincial house is at the same time the mother-house of the institution in Canada. The Congregation of the Presentation of Mary comprises 30 houses in Canada and 16 in the United States educating 13,670 children.

[ Note: The foundress, Anne Marie Rivier (b. 19 Dec., 1768; d. 3 Feb., 1838), was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 23 May, 1982.]

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