Hélène Boullé
Imaginary Journey
English 4851
Activity One
Week 2: Imaginary Journey - Hélène Boullé
After Marriage
While her husband was still alive, Hélène got the idea to become an Ursuline Nun while studying Algonquin and teaching some of the Algonquin natives (1). The natives were entranced by a trinket she always had on, some articles stating the trinket to be a shiny belt buckle (2). When her husband died suddenly in in 1635, Boulle was free to become a nun but did not do so until ten years later due to other obligations (2). Boulle entered a convent in Paris, joining the monastery of St. Ursula in 1645 first as a benefactress, and then becoming a novice under the name of Hélène de St. Augustin (1).
Ursuline Nuns
An image of Ursuline Nuns in the 1700s
http://www.historiann.com/2009/01/18/le-18-janvier-1709/
Typical clothing for ursuline nuns was a black hooded dresses bounded by a leather girdle.
For the Ursulines, their mission was female schooling, both in France and in the New World. While Boulle was still a novice, she left the convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques to go and found a monastery in the town of Meaux (2). She lived in Meaux for six years before dying of a week long illness on December 20th, 1654 (1).
