Kankakee

On June 28, 1865, at the request of the Syndics of Kankakee, Father Côté, parish priest of Bourbonnais, requested that Mother Sainte-Ursule send sisters from the Congregation. The General Council accepted the request but demanded that the parish build a convent. Under the direction of their parish priest, Father J. Langlois, the faithful erected a 30′ by 25′ two-story wooden house in two months; a sister took charge of the school which was dependent on Bourbonnais. More than a hundred students showed up, including several Protestants. Every Sunday, for about three years, Chiniquy went out of his way to blacken the reputation of the Sisters by giving lectures to that effect, but the missionaries held firm.

Considering the needs of the work, the sisters bought three plots of land measuring 15′ by 50′, for the sum of a thousand dollars, which they had to borrow. The foundation stone was laid on September 21, 1867. The sisters suffered significant poverty: lack of food, cold, dampness, discomfort in everything. The first Mass was held at the convent on March 18, 1869, and the Blessed Sacrament remained in the tabernacle.

The Kankakee boarding school opened in September 1871; Sister Saint-Alexis-de-Saint-Joseph was named its superior. In 1874, for security reasons, the convent was incorporated by the State under the name Saint Joseph Seminary. The boys’ school left by the Clerics of Saint-Viateur was accepted by the Community on July 28, 1874.

Twenty years passed without any remarkable events. Seventy-eight boarders were admitted in 1894. The chapel was extended in 1905. Construction of the wing, evaluated at $35,000, began on June 13, 1905 and was completed and solemnly blessed on April 5, 1906.

 

Excerpt from: Histoire de la Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal, Volume X 1855-1900, Volume II