World leaders in various sectors, who were challenged by global and sustainable health issues, gathered at the Global Wellness Summit in 2017. They identified the subject of silence as one of the eight major trends in the sector of wellness for years to come. Le Monastère des Augustines had also been mentioned in a report based on this international conference as a good example of this trend.
At Le Monastère des Augustines, we have the privilege and responsibility to preserve and enhance the material, immaterial, social and spiritual heritage of the Augustinian Sisters. Since silence has settled in Le Monastère in thin layers for more than 375 years, we recognize it as a paradoxically immaterial legacy, but one that is tangible. We are constantly seeking ways to translate this legacy and modernize it in our modes of hospitality, our modalities of animation and our programming.
In the past, life at the monastery was organized according to a well-established rhythm, meeting the customary[1] requirements. Silence, which permeated every area of the monastery, was regularly broken by the resounding sound of different bells.
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 book written by Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France: Journal d’un voyage fait par ordre du roi dans l’Amérique Septentrionale, tome III, 1744. On November 14, 1823, the Hôpital géneral de Québec received this book as a gift from Mademoiselle de Saint-Ours, a resident and benefactress of the institution.