This square building, part of Campus Saint-Jean, is actually the former convent of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Evron. This religious order, founded in Maine, France, has often been associated with education and health care.
In 1902, a new law required that education in France be secular, which forced the sisters to develop their educational activities outside the country. They first settled in Belgium, then in England, and finally in Alberta. It was in the small French town of Trochu, north of Calgary, that they founded a hospital in 1909.
Two years later, the sisters arrived in Edmonton at the request of Father Hippolyte Leduc, pastor of Saint-Joachim, and also a native of Évron. A few years earlier, it was he who had asked the Grey Nuns of Montreal to come and open Edmonton’s General Hospital.
The sisters moved into their convent and for over 50 years, they ran the kitchen, laundry and infirmary for the Oblate fathers and the students of the college.
In 1987, it was decided that the building would henceforth be known as the André-Daridon Pavilion, in honor of the founder of Collège Saint-Jean. Today, the pavilion houses the Campus Language School, which offers French language courses to civil servants and teachers, as well as a French immersion experience during the summer in La Pocatière, Quebec.