St. Francis of Assisi Friary

By: Ryan Krawchuk

Did you know that the City of Edmonton has had a monastery since 1925?

My grandmother was the Librarian at the St. Francis of Assisi Friary for as long as I can remember. I have several fond memories of roaming the halls of the friary, playing pool in the games room, basketball in the gym, and hosting Christmas dinner with the Secular Franciscan society in the basement meeting room, helping my mother cook for 80 to 150 people.

Construction began on the St. Francis of Assisi Friary and the St. Anthony’s College in North Edmonton in 1925, with major additions being built in 1931 and 1946. A large part of the early development of the Baldwin neighbourhood in North Edmonton, the 1925 building features a metal cornice around the roofline and majestic Gothic-arched windows on the ground floor. The attached church, St. Francis of Assisi parish, is a three-story building whose front entrance is constructed of a cast concrete box with six solid oak doors. The friary and the church were built utilizing several different architectural styles on the site connecting several buildings constructed over 40 years, making it unique in the City of Edmonton.

Prior to the establishment of Alberta as a province, the Franciscans set up a mission at Fort Saskatchewan. When the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) arrived in Edmonton on November 24, 1905, and the establishment of the meat-packing district in North Edmonton, the population in the area boomed and was incorporated into the Village of North Edmonton. The first Christian mass was celebrated on November 1, 1908 and two more masses were held in the Fire Hall at the Swift’s plan in early 1909. Given the number of Christian families moving into the area, the missionary activities were transferred from Fort Saskatchewan into Packington in 1909, the Friary was built later that year, and within two additional years, the church was built. When the St. Francis School opened right next door, the catholic presence in the area consolidated. In 1920, the Seraphic College for Franciscan Vocations opened its doors.

The complex, including the Parish, Friary, and College was identified as the head office of the Major Superior of the Ecclesiastical Province of Christ the King of Western Canada, which included all the lands west of the Ontario border to Vancouver Island.

The St. Francis of Assisi friary moved to the Cromdale neighbourhood, selling their historic building to the Bosco Foundation.