St. Marguerite Bourgeoys

Marguerite Bourgeoys was born on April 17, 1620, in Troyes, in the Champagne region of France, to Abraham Bourgeoys, a candlemaker, and his wife Guillemette Garnier. She was the twelfth of thirteen children in a devoutly Catholic merchant family. When Marguerite was about five years old, her mother died, and she was raised thereafter by her father and her older siblings. Abraham Bourgeoys himself did not die until 1639, when Marguerite was nineteen. She received her early formation from the Canonesses of Saint-Augustin, an uncloistered religious community in Troyes, who were known for running schools and hospitals; their example of active religious life strongly shaped her sense of vocation.

A turning point came in 1640, when Marguerite participated in a large procession in Troyes honoring Our Lady of the Rosary, during which a cross reportedly became stuck in her hands—an event she later interpreted as a personal call to religious life. She initially considered joining an established cloister but felt drawn instead to a more active apostolate. In 1652, she encountered Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the governor of the fledgling colony of Ville-Marie (present-day Montreal) in New France, who was recruiting volunteers to support the young settlement. She joined a small group traveling to the colony and arrived at Ville-Marie in 1653, initially planning only a short stay.

Once in New France, Marguerite quickly recognized the urgent need for education, especially among the young women and girls of the colony. She began teaching, and in 1658 she opened her first school in a converted stable in the settlement. Her focus was the formation of girls—reading, writing, domestic skills, and Christian doctrine. She traveled back to France to recruit teachers, gathered candidates from the working class of Troyes, and trained them herself for mission work in the New World. She also assisted the Jesuit missionary Jeanne Mance and worked among the colonists and Indigenous peoples of the region with great energy and resourcefulness.

In 1657, Bishop François de Laval gave Marguerite and her companions the use of a small chapel, and on Pentecost of the following year the first school opened. In 1659, Maisonneuve returned to France and asked that a group of teaching women be sent to Ville-Marie. In 1669, Marguerite traveled to France to recruit teachers and to seek approval for her community. On February 1, 1670, Bishop Laval named her superior and gave her the title of her teaching community: the Congregation of Notre Dame, dedicated to the education of girls in New France. The first school in Montreal, on Rue Saint-Paul, opened on March 6, 1670. Over the following years, the community established a network of schools across the colony, including in Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, and Île d'Orléans.

Marguerite led the Congregation of Notre Dame for nearly thirty years, serving as superior until 1693, when ill health forced her to step down. She continued to live with the sisters, pray, and write her spiritual autobiography (the famous 'Écrits') until her death on January 12, 1700, in Montreal. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI on November 12, 1925, and canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 31, 1990. Her feast day is celebrated on January 12 in both Canada and the universal Roman calendar.