Saint Alphonse is a small English speaking Belgian community in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Saint Alphonse is part of the

Municipality of Lorne The Municipality of Lorne (french: Municipalité de Lorne) is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. History The RM was created on January 1, 2015 via the amalgamation of the RM of Lorne and the villages of Notre-Dam ...

. The village of Saint Alphonse was founded in the early 1880s by

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

mainly from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and some from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Other Belgian immigrants settled further north and founded the village of

Bruxelles Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. The school of Saint Alphonse opened in 1883. It hosted Belgian children of whom two-thirds were

Walloons Walloons (; french: Wallons ; wa, Walons) are a Gallo-Romance ethnic group living native to Wallonia and the immediate adjacent regions of France. Walloons primarily speak '' langues d'oïl'' such as Belgian French, Picard and Walloon. Walloo ...

and from

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and a third of Flemish origin. The common language of instruction for all students was only French. In 1959, the school of Saint Alphonse regrouped neighbouring French-speaking schools (École La Grange, école Saint-Urbain, école Saint-Albert). Due to the depopulation of villages, St. Alphonsus school closed in 1996. The children were redirected to Anglophone schools in the nearby towns of Swan Lake and Bruxelles, Manitoba.

References

External links

Historique du village de Saint-Alphonse
Localities in Manitoba Manitoba communities with majority francophone populations {{Manitoba-geo-stub

See also

References

External links