Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys was a French teacher who in the seventeenth century sailed to Canada, opened the first school in Montreal, and founded the Congregation of Notre Dame, a community of sisters living without cloister. She is the first woman saint of the Church in Canada. The Church commemorates her on January 12.

She was born on April 17, 1620, on Good Friday, in Troyes in Champagne, the sixth of the twelve children of Abraham Bourgeoys and Guillemette Garnier. She was nineteen when her mother died. On October 7, 1640, during a procession in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, she looked at a stone statue of Mary and, as she recalled, felt so changed that she no longer knew herself. She resolved to give her life to God.

She joined an association of young women who taught the children of the poor districts of Troyes. It was directed by Sister Louise de Chomedey, whose brother Paul de Maisonneuve had founded in Canada the settlement of Ville-Marie, the future Montreal. In 1652 he was looking for a teacher for the children of the colonists and of the Native peoples, and Marguerite agreed to go. She recalled that Mary strengthened her with the words: “Go, I will not forsake you.” In February 1653 she left Troyes, and on November 16 she reached Ville-Marie.

There were almost no children of school age in the settlement, so in the first years she helped the colonists in everything. She brought about the building of the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. In 1658 she opened a school in a stable given to her by Maisonneuve. She taught free of charge, the daughters of colonists and Native girls alike; in every child she saw, as she said, a drop of the blood of Christ. She also looked after the young women sent from France to start families in the colony. She was called the Mother of the Colony.

Three times she returned to France for help and companions. From the teachers who shared her prayer, poverty, and work a community grew. Marguerite wanted the sisters, after the example of Mary hastening to Elizabeth, not to be enclosed in a cloister but to go wherever they were needed, which was something new at the time. She had to defend this plan before bishops who wanted to unite the community with the Ursulines. In 1671 Louis XIV recognized the congregation by royal charter, in 1676 the bishop of Quebec approved it, and in 1698 the sisters accepted a rule and made their vows.

In 1693 she handed the direction of the congregation to a younger sister. At the end of her life she offered it to God for the healing of a gravely ill young sister. She died in Montreal on January 12, 1700, with a reputation for holiness. She left forty sisters, who carried on her work.

Pius XII beatified her on November 12, 1950, and John Paul II canonized her on October 31, 1982, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame teach and work in many countries. Since 2005 the saint’s remains have rested in the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in Montreal.