'Fidèles à la langue: les religieuses enseignantes et la survivance de la langue française en Saskatchewan' revisits the role of Roman Catholic Church clergy in the creation of the French speaking community in Western Canada generally, and more specifically in Saskatchewan. This thesis relies particularly on the narratives of the francophone nuns in Saskatchewan and on their mission, which was a determining factor in the survival of the French language in Saskatchewan. Their history is closely linked to important historical trends such as the rapid globalization of universal religions in de XIXth century as well as Roman Catholicism's struggles against the republican policies in France. Their history is also linked to 'la survivance' of the French Canadian identity in North America and to the entrenchment of the francophone community in Saskatchewan. The story of these women's congregations in Saskatchewan illustrates how regional, day-to-day history merges with international events and how ideology affectsthe day-to-day lives of remote populations. Colonialism allowed these congregations, with their missionary spirit, to expand. At the end of the XIXth century, a good number of these congregations chose to settle outside of France, in reaction to the republican policies that secularized the country. In the early decades of the XXth century, the province of Saskatchewan accommodated a good number of these congregations fleeing their native France from what they perceived as hostile legislation. These sisters pursued their teaching mandate in the context of Saskatchewan's rural francophone pioneer parishes, which had invited them. As early as the end of the XIXth century, the Catholic Church established communal institutions such as parishes, schools, orphanages and hospitals in the Canadian North West. Many teaching congregations settled in these francophone villages, of which the church was the main promoter. They were instrumental in the administration of schools and in teaching French. Education was presented as an identity concept which comprised French as a first language, culture and Catholic faith. The contribution of these teachers to Saskatchewan's francophone minority community was a decisive factor in the survival of the French fact in Saskatchewan. The nuns showed a remarkable capacity for adaptation by continuing to play a role in the transmission of the French language as politics and the school systems mutated and evolved. Without the commitment of these congregations, the results of the efforts of the province's Francophone associations would not have been as fruitful. These religious congregations managed to perpetuate the French language in Saskatchewan, and in doing so, expanded the country's linguistic duality.