A colossal sale at the Sisters of Saint Anne

Inside Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mainly on the run, his office in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.

Because they are selling their convent in Lachine, which has become far too big for them, the Sisters of Sainte-Anne are organizing an absolutely gigantic “garage sale” until Monday.

While waiting for the buyers, furniture by the hundreds is piling up on the sides of the corridor for at least 200 meters.

Several dozen rooms (I have given up counting them) are full of objects of disconcerting diversity.

There is everything: kitchen items, works of art, tools, appliances, antiques, chairs, religious articles, air conditioners, stepladders, common everyday objects, wheelchairs, liturgical furniture, televisions, metal lockers for changing rooms, cupboards, wardrobes, trolleys, coat hooks, bedding, curtains, medical equipment, kitchen utensils, etc.

The announcement speaks of 4000 objects. But I feel more like there are at least 20,000 for sale.

Behind these Herculean preparations, I discovered a handful of tenacious workers: the Sisters of Saint Anne.

energetic sisters

It was a bewildering sight to see a team of nuns of a very venerable age, all frail, apply themselves with surreal energy to sorting and arranging thousands of heterogeneous objects.

Of course, these octogenarians have help with the big pieces, but for everything else, they continue to show the same zeal for work that enabled this community, founded by Esther Blondin in 1850, to build and to maintain this gigantic building while maintaining up to 80 schools at the same time.

From the beginning to the end of my visit, which lasted two hours, the nuns never stopped working. I watched them go and felt lazy.

Immensity of real estate

“I walk about 10 kilometers a day moving inside the building,” Sister Céline Dupuis, 79, told me who, along with an 86-year-old colleague, supervised this huge operation to empty what had was the headquarters of a community which at its peak numbered some 1,800 sisters, nurses and teachers.

When I was told on the phone that the convent of the Sisters of Sainte-Anne had some nine kilometers of corridors, I thought it was an exaggeration.

Well, I was wrong.

I’ve already visited larger buildings, it’s true: I’m thinking of the Louvre and Versailles… But this former parent company is a real castle.

“More sisters lived here than the population of many villages, and it was all built to last a thousand years,” comments Martin Duchesne, a project manager for the sisters.

“There are fully equipped dentistry rooms, a large indoor swimming pool, hair salons, a chapel the size of a church with its own Casavant organ. »

I remain dazzled by the rooms with their entire walls covered with structural cabinets in oak or mahogany.

Notice to future owners: undoing these carpentry masterpieces would be a crime against heritage.

Affordable condos

Last month, the approximately 130 Sisters of Sainte-Anne moved into a new, more humble building.

“We met with real estate developers, but we preferred a community organization that will transform a third of the building into low-cost condos (which the owners will not be able to resell by speculating) and the rest into a large residence for independent seniors” , said Sister Celine.

I don’t know how many tens of millions the sisters give up by choosing the generous solution.

They thus dedicate the former parent company to a pilot project that could transform our way of looking at so-called affordable housing (condos without the possibility of speculation, I can’t wait to see that!).

The big sale continues until Monday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 1950, rue Provost. If you go, arm yourself with patience: it will be crowded!