Marguerite Bourgeoys
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 1620 – 12 January 1700, feast day: January 12) was born the sixth of twelve children of devout parents. When Marguerite was 19, her mother died, and the young lady cared for her younger brothers and sisters; her father died when she was twenty-seven. The family raised, Marguerite prayed to know what to do with her life. The governor of Montreal, Canada, was in France looking for teachers for the New World. He invited Marguerite to come to Montreal to teach school and religion classes. She said yes and spent the rest of her life in North America.
Marguerite gave away her share of her parents' inheritance to other members of the family, and in 1653 sailed for Canada. On arriving, she initiated the construction of a chapel to honor Our Lady of Good Help. Opened her first school in 1658. Returned to France in 1659 to recruit more teachers, and returned with four; in 1670, she went to France again, and brought back six more. These brave women became the first sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame.
Marguerite and her sisters helped people in the colony survive when food was scarce, opened a vocational school, taught young people how to run a home and farm. Marguerite's congregation grew to 18 sisters, seven of them Canadian. They opened missions, and two sisters taught at the Native American mission. Marguerite received the first two Native American women into the congregation.
In 1693, Mother Marguerite handed over her congregation to her successor, Marie Barbier, the first Canadian to join the order. Marguerite's religious rule was approved by the Church in 1698, and Marguerite spent her last few years praying and writing an autobiography. On December 31, 1699, a young sister lay dying. Mother Marguerite asked the Lord to take her life in exchange. By the morning of January 1, 1700, the sister was completely well, Mother Marguerite had a raging fever, suffered 12 days, and died on January 12, 1700.
She was declared Venerable in 1878, beatified on 12 November 1950 and canonized by John Paul II on 2 April 1982. She is commemorated in both the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Church of Canada on January 12. She is buried in the sanctuary of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel in Montreal, which also houses a museum about her life and the early history of Montreal.
