The hall of residence was started by Laly Martin, a Numerary member of Opus Dei, who took possession of the building which was to become the hall of residence on July 16, 1959. After completing a brief course in Rome given by St Josemaria, the founder of Opus Dei, Laly and three companions had embarked by ship for Canada, to start the great adventure of the feminine presence of Opus Dei in Canada.

They obtained a loan from a financing firm in Montreal and bought a house on the Avenue Louis-Collin, Woodbury. This would later be Fonteneige. They had only a few weeks to complete the renovation, decoration and furnishing of the building, but had it ready for the arrival of the first residents at the start of the new academic year.

“The first year was great because we and the first residents very soon felt like a family,” recalls Laly. “We were very united and made really good friends!”

Montboisé hall of residence kept up the spirit and atmosphere of that first year, and became a dynamic place to live and study for hundreds of young women through the years. “The residents came here to find somewhere where they could live and study, and many of them rediscovered, or found for the first time, the perfect setting for the ideal of Christian living, in the cheerful family warmth of the residence,” says Laly Martin.

Catherine Foisy is a doctoral candidate at Université Concordia