“I owe them everything.” Micheline Lanctôt’s testimony as a former SNJM student

Between the ages of 5 and 17, actress and filmmaker Micheline Lanctôt attended various schools in Montreal run by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.

Micheline Lanctôt, one of the great figures of Quebec cinema, has played around 70 roles on both the big and small screens, in addition to directing nearly 15 films, including feature films and documentaries. She is deeply aware of the profound influence the SNJM Sisters had on her education, her passion for rigorous work, and her drive to fulfill her potential. Today, she looks back with gratitude on the congregation that was an important part of her formative years.

Micheline Lanctôt views the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary as true visionaries. She notes that during the 1950s and 1960s, “you had to have deep faith in women’s education to do what those religious communities did – especially the SNJMs.”

According to the filmmaker, the SNJM Sisters had a very noble vision of education. At the time, the congregation required all sisters to enhance the skills needed to educate their students.

Ms. Lanctôt admiringly recalls one teacher, Sister Marie-Natalie, who had “an extraordinary talent for music and was covered in diplomas!” At Collège Jésus-Marie d’Outremont, where she studied, the SNJM alumna also remembers a director who held three doctorates. “When she walked down the hallways, we were in awe. She held doctorates in theology, sociology, and philosophy.” The filmmaker directed a movie, Pour l’amour de Dieu, as a tribute to the women religious who shaped her, and more specifically to Sister Marie-Olivier, her 7th-grade teacher who made a lasting impression: “her teaching methods were well ahead of her time.”

The actress and filmmaker also explains that the education provided by women’s religious congregations in Quebec included a strong cultural component. This was particularly true for the SNJM Sisters, who founded the Vincent d’Indy Music School, “considered at the time to be one of the best schools in North America, if not the best,” Ms. Lanctôt emphasizes.

She also recalls acting in plays, notably performing in Camus’s The Misunderstanding (Le Malentendu) at age 15, and Claudel’s The Tidings Brought to Mary (L’Annonce faite à Marie) at age 16. These experiences left a profound mark on her, as did the movie screenings regularly organized by the sisters, which opened her mind to the world.

Regarding the SNJM Sisters, Ms. Lanctôt says she owes them everything: “I owe them my career in the arts. I owe them my interest in the arts, my passion for music, and more or less, my acting career.”

Looking back, the artist wonders if it would be possible in Quebec today to create educational programs equivalent to those from which she benefited. Today, she notes, “we educate students for the job market, whereas through the humanities and the classical course, people were educated for knowledge and learning. The objective is completely different.”

In conclusion, Micheline Lanctôt hopes that the education system can equip young people as best as possible to navigate a world that, in her view, causes them anxiety. She also hopes that students learn to think for themselves from an early age, developing a critical perspective on the society in which they live.