Loyola High School (Montreal)

Founded in 1896, Loyola High School began as Loyola College (an eight-year classical college or "collège classique") which assumed responsibility for the English section of Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal, a French Jesuit school which existed from 1848 to 1969.[2] In 1916, Loyola College moved from its downtown location to the west end location on Sherbrooke St. West. In 1964, the Loyola High School Corporation was established to run the school separately from the college. When Loyola College merged with Sir George Williams University in 1974 to form Concordia University, the title to the land that the school occupied on the north-east corner of the campus was transferred from the college.

To this day, Loyola has remained true to its Jesuit apostolate, educating "Men for Others" who are intellectually competent, open to growth, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice.[3]

Junior Building's east facing facade

Loyola was originally located in an abandoned Sacred Heart Convent on Bleury and St. Catherine Street. A fire broke out at this location in 1898, provoking the college to move into the former Tucker School on Drummond Street. That summer, a wing was added, but space soon became inadequate. In 1900, the Jesuits purchased the Decary Farm in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce located in the west end of Montreal, where the school remains to this day on what is commonly referred to as the Loyola Campus of Concordia University.[4]

Junior Building's north facing facade

In 1916, Loyola College officially moved to the new campus. The high school was located in the Junior Building and, until 1961, shared the Administration Building and then the north half of the Central Building. It was the Junior Building, which was designed in the Collegiate Gothic architectural style and covered in gargoyles, leaded and stained-glass windows and oak moulding, where young men began their journey to become "Eight-Year Men". After four years of high school and four years of college, they graduated with university degrees in Arts or Sciences.

In 1961, the era of boarders ended and the high school moved exclusively to the Junior Building. An extension was added in 1968 and a gymnasium was built south of Sherbrooke Street in 1978. In 1988 a decision was reached to erect a new building in order to properly accommodate the student body and to enable the school to offer the curriculum outlined by the Ministry of Education.

New building's north facing facade

Loyola considered a number of possible options for the future building, including adding an extension onto the Junior Building, and relocating the school to Côte Saint-Luc on land owned by Loyola (currently the location of Côte Saint-Luc City Hall). The school eventually made arrangements with Concordia University to swap the Junior Building for a site on the south-west end of Loyola campus beside the school gymnasium. The new building was completed in 1992. The Bishops Atrium and a three-story wing was constructed in 2004, along with an auditorium the following year.[3]

In the school’s Mission Statement, Loyola is described as a “university-preparatory school.” Students are also expected to complete the requirements for a Secondary School Diploma to be admitted to C.E.G.E.P. Core and optional subjects offered in the high school curriculum are broken down according to cycle - Cycle 1 (years 1 and 2) and Cycle 2 (years 3, 4, and 5).[5] The high school performs competitively locally and provincially in examinations results.[6]

As a Catholic and Jesuit school, all of Loyola's activities are meant to be inspired by Catholic teachings in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola. In 2015 Loyola's Board of Governors put forward a five-year strategic plan which identified five "foundational pillars" in order to pursue the school's mission. The plan proposed, among other things, to "infuse all programmes with a truly Catholic and Ignatian pedagogy" and to "foster the maintenance of an Ignatian environment that engages the broader Loyola community"[7]

While the school's president is ultimately responsible for ensuring the school's spiritual mission, the Loyola Ignatian Formation director oversees its particular activities in the entire Loyola community (alumni, parents, faculty, and students). The Campus Ministry is tasked with overseeing students' spiritual formation.[8]

Loyola fields a number of athletic teams in competition with other schools in Canada and the United States, primarily competing in the Greater Montreal Athletics Association and Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec. Loyola's traditional rivals in athletics are Lower Canada College and Selwyn House School.

The name "Loyola" is derived from the Spanish Lobo-y-olla, meaning "wolf" and "kettle". The school's coat of arms is a variation of St. Ignatius of Loyola's coat of arms, which depicts the union of the House of Loyola (represented by the two wolves and kettle) and the House of Onaz (represented by the seven red bars on a field of gold) in 1261. The phrase "Loyola y Onaz" typically appears at the bottom, though another variation of the school's coat of arms includes the Jesuit motto "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam", meaning "for the greater glory of God".

• Jim Pearson, Loyola and Montreal: Stories from Our History (Montreal: 2018)
• Joseph B. Gavin, S.J., From 'Le petit collège de bois' to 7272 Sherbrooke St. West: A Brief History of Loyola High School, Montreal (Montreal: 2012)
• Dr. Gil Drolet, Loyola, The Wars: In Remembrance of 'Men for Others' (Waterloo: Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, 1996)
• T.P. Slattery, Loyola and Montreal (Montreal: Palm Publishers, 1962)

In 2008, Quebec's Ministry of Education, Sport and Leisure introduced a mandatory "Ethics and Religious Culture" (ERC) course to all Quebec schools. Loyola had reservations about the course's ability to meet its objectives from a relativistic perspective, and applied for an exemption to teach an ERC equivalency course. Loyola's equivalency course had similar goals as the government's ERC but was structured on a methodology that was more in keeping with its Catholic, Jesuit identity. The government denied the request for exemption and, as a result, Loyola took the matter to the Superior Court of Quebec where in 2010 the Superior Court ruled in Loyola's favour. The Ministry appealed and in 2012 the appellate court overturned the Superior Court's decision.

Loyola then took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada where, on 19 March 2015, it was ruled that the Quebec Ministry was in violation of Loyola's religious freedom and ordered the Ministry to reconsider the exemption.[15]

• Loyola High School official site