St Ann's Academy - Victoria BC
N 48° 25.150 W 123° 21.806
10U E 473109 N 5362954
St Ann's was a boarding school for girls, a Convent and Novitiate from 1858 to 1973.
Waymark Code: WM2ZTP
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 01/16/2008
Views: 146
St Ann’s Academy was established in 1858. Bishop Modeste Demers saw a need for education in the growing population of Victoria. Having been born in Quebec, he journeyed there in search of an order of teaching Sisters to establish a mission in Victoria. He found the newly formed Sisters of Saint Ann who were dedicating themselves to the education of the poor and the needy, with Saint Ann, the patron saint of teachers, acting as their inspiration.
After his tales of the great needs of education and caring for the sick in the wilds of the new Colony of Vancouver Island, the entire Convent in Quebec volunteered to make the arduous journey to Victoria. Only 4 Sisters and a Laywoman where picked though, and after a 54 day odyssey they arrived to a simple log cabin located on the marshy ground of what would become their Convent, Academy and home till 1973.
The building that is standing here today was constructed in three sections from 1871 to 1913. The Convent eventually occupied the left wing that was added in the second expansion and was completed in 1886. The Academy operated for 115 years and as you can imagine, influenced the lives of thousands of people through their education, their nursing and their other charity work in Victoria and other places on Vancouver Island.
The history of the Sisters did not end in 1973 as the Sisters of Saint Ann continue to have a presence in Victoria both because of the restoration of the Academy itself and the fact that the Sisters of St. Ann are still an active order residing in the area.
The Sisters have been such an important part of the history in Victoria and of Canada as a whole that in 1989 St Ann's Academy was recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada and a plaque was installed near the entrance in 1999.