Find of the Month – Travel to Africa
Every month, an object from the heritage bequest by the Augustinian community is selected by the museum storage facility and archives center teams. Featured this month: a travel to Africa letter.
Le Monastère des Augustines Archives Center presents you a letter written by Sister Marie-Reine-Elmina Brière, called de Saint-François-Xavier, aboard the “Lake Champlain!. She recounts her first day at sea.
“I write to you from the deck, with the moon lighting me, as well as a bit of electrical lighting from the back. All the postulants are also at their desks, while Sister Saint-Henri minds the inkwell.”
As missionary women, many of Québec’s Augustinian Sisters crossed the Atlantic Ocean to lend their French sisters a hand in South Africa. On July 12, 1901, two sisters and four postulants from the Hôpital général de Québec monastery bade farewell to their loved ones aboard this steamship. They arrived at their destination, the city of Durban, on August 30.
