TRANSCRIPT

At the time, teachers from the Séminaire used to give courses at CMI. Since they taught at both places, we had to adjust our time to theirs. Abbé Bordeleau gave a metaphysics course from 4 to 5 in the afternoon attended by seven students and seven nuns from our school. The abbé had the bad habit of arriving late, so class would begin around 4:10 or 4:15. This was no problem for the boarders, but it meant that the day students missed their bus to Cap-de-la-Madeleine in the suburbs. So one day, the girls decided to teach him a lesson. There was a Big Ben-style clock in back of the classroom. While we were waiting for the teacher to arrive, a student set it for 5 o'clock. Abbé Bordeleau came in late, as usual. He proceeded to teach the class, but at 5 sharp the clock began to chime. Everyone jumped, even the one who had set it. Abbé Bordeleau stopped talking, picked up his book, closed it and said,' I think that means it's time to go.' He got up, knelt at the rostrum as he always did at the end of class, and recited his Suptuum Presidium. Then he got up again and said, 'My guys (in the Séminaire) would never have done that to me.' Then he left. After that, he always showed up on time.

Monique Laliberté
Student at CMI from 1947 to 1950