BOURGEOYS, MARGUERITE, ST.

Foundress and first superior of the Sisters of the Congregation de Notre Dame; b. Troyes, France, April 17, 1620; d. Montreal, Canada, January 12, 1700. The daughter of a prosperous merchant, Marguerite grew up in a quiet corner of Champagne. In 1653, after several unsuccessful attempts to enter the cloister, she sailed for Canada with Paul de C. Maisonneuve, governor of Montreal, a frontier garrison in New France, founded only twelve years before. There, in 1658, she opened the first school in Montreal in an abandoned stone stable. Within a few years she had established a school for native people, a native mission, a boarding school for the daughters of merchants, and a training school for the poor. As the scope of her work grew, she brought assistants from France; later, Canadian-born girls and two Natives joined her in her work. The group developed into a new kind of religious community, not bound to the cloister, but free to go, dressed in the costume of the poor, wherever their zeal and the needs of the people demanded. In 1698, two years before her death, the Congregation de Notre Dame won ecclesiastical approval.

The foundress consistently refused endowments, dowries for her companions, and gifts of money that would have made her life less directly dependent on God. She and her religious supported themselves by sewing, and lived frugally so that they could give alms to the poor. They began needed buildings without the money to complete them, and offered the work of their hands in exchange for the services of carpenters and masons. After a disastrous fire in December of 1683, the community was left destitute. As soon as the ground thawed in the spring, they began, totally without resources, the construction of a new school. With alms, Marguerite built a chapel as a place of pilgrimage to Our Lady, Notre Dame de Bon Secours; she and her companions carried stones and poured mortar for the masons. Marguerite spent her last years writing an autobiography. She was beatified in 1956; John Paul II canonized her, April 2, 1982.

Feast: Jan. 12 (Canada).

Bibliography: c. m. bourgeoys, Les Écrits de Mère Bourgeoys. Autobiographie et testament spirituel (Montreal 1964). e. montgolfier, La vie de la vénérable Marguerite Bourgeoys dite du Saint-Sacrement, institutrice, fondatrice (Montreal 1818). É. m. faillon, Vie de la soeur Bourgeoys, 2 v. (Villemarie 1853). a. jamet, Marguerite Bourgeoys, 2 v. (Montreal 1942). y. charron, Mère Bourgeoys, tr. sister st. godeliva (Montreal 1950). k. burton, Vahant Voyager (Milwaukee 1964). p. simpson, Marguerite Bourgeoys and Montreal 1640–1665 (Montreal 1997).

[v. m. cotter]