Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

January 12th, we celebrate the feast of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, the French founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, treacher, missionary, apostle of charity and also instrumental in establishing the Canadian city of Montreal.

Born the sixth of 12 children in Troyes, France, Marguerite had to assume the responsibility for the household when her mother died. In the following year, 1640, in the course of a procession held on October 7 in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, she had an unforgettable experience.

Her eyes rested on a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and at that moment she felt inspired to withdraw from the world and to consecrate herself to the service of God. Her applications to the Carmelites and Poor Clares were unsuccessful.

A priest friend suggested that perhaps God had other plans for her.
In 1654, the governor of the French settlement in Montreal, Canada, Paul de Maisonneuve, visited his sister, an Augustinian canoness in Troyes. Marguerite belonged to a sodality connected to that convent. The governor invited her to come to Canada and start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of Montreal). When she arrived, the colony numbered 200 people with a hospital and a Jesuit mission chapel.

She survived several outbreaks of plague while traveling to the “New World,” a fire which consumed her village, several attacks by Native American Iriquois Indians, poverty, hunger, and the hardships associated with settling the isolated outpost which would become modern-day Montreal. Following her arrival in Canada, Saint Marguerite worked tirelessly to improve health care and education for the settlers—French, Canadian,and Iriquois alike.

She founded a school, began the construction of Notre Dame de Bon Secours chapel in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and founded the first Canadian religious order for women, the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame.

Marguerite and her growing community braved the harsh and dangerous wilderness, teaching and ministering to settlers, the sick, and the poor. Beyond the classroom, she worked with families, assisted in faith formation in the parish, and addressed the social service needs of the colonists. Noteworthy among her contributions to the colony are the special vocational schools she established to provide the domestic skills a young woman would need to run a home in the wilderness.

She became the official guardian to the “filles du roi,” young orphan girls sent by the monarch to establish new families. She lodged them in her own home, served as a matchmaker, and prepared them for their new life as pioneers. Her signature appears as a witness on many of the early marriage contracts in Montreal. As a result of these activities she was affectionately referred to as “the Mother of the Colony.” Marguerite made three trips back to France to recruit other women to join her in her work of education and to obtain civil approbation from the king.

The church hierarchy, however, showed reluctance toward a women’s order with no cloistered nuns. Their rule of life would not receive final approval until 1698, though the Bishop of Quebec had authorized their work in 1676. The congregation and religious order that Saint Marguerite established soon grew to over two hundred. By that time, she had become ill and too weak to act as master of the order. She devoted the last years of her life to recording her biography and prayer.

Shortly before her death, as one of her young sisters lay critically ill, Saint Marguerite prayed that God would take her life, instead of her sisters. Miraculously, the following morning, the young sister was fully recovered, but Marguerite was struck with a raging fever, from which she never recovered.

Pope John Paul II canonized St. Marguerite Bourgeoys in 1982, as the first woman saint of the Catholic Church in Canada.

Prayer:

Grant that we, by the example of Saint Marguerite and through her prayers, may proclaim by our in words and deeds, along every path that leads to you, the presence and love of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen

Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, pray for us.