Collège Sainte-Anne — The Eudists

From founding to transition

In 1883, Bishop Cornelius O’Brien of Halifax planned to establish a French-language college at Baie Sainte-Marie. He sought a religious community willing to lead it. After approaching several communities, he was put in touch through Sulpician Hyacinthe Rouxel with Father Ange Le Doré, Superior General of the Eudists. The General Council accepted the mission, and in September 1890 Father Le Doré sent Fathers Gustave Blanche and Aimé Morin to found the college. It grew quickly and earned a strong reputation.

A varied curriculum, a rich programme of religious, athletic, and cultural activities, and the steady presence of successive Eudist superiors and teachers shaped generations of young Acadians. Many later went on to hold important positions in their communities and abroad.

Until 1965, the college operated with modest resources and a small student body. That year, questions arose about its future, prompting a series of studies from 1965 to 1969. In April 1970, the provincial government established a planning commission for the Community College of southwestern Nova Scotia. The Eudist Congregation, adapting to the changing times, expressed its wish to relinquish the administrative and financial responsibility for its educational institutions. On June 21, 1971, it transferred the management and administration of the college, which it had led for eighty years, to a civil corporation.