Marguerite Bourgeoys

The work of Marguerite Bourgeoys is intertwined with the beginnings of Montreal. In 1657, she undertook the construction of the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours chapel, the city's first Marian pilgrimage site. In 1658, Governor de Maisonneuve granted her a stone stable where she opened the first school in Ville-Marie, intended for both French children and those of Indigenous families. Starting in 1659, she welcomed and trained the "King's daughters" (filles du roi), those young women sent from France to establish households, teaching them how to manage a home and live a Christian life. Around her, a community of teachers gradually formed, living outside the cloister to meet the needs of the time—a model that was unprecedented: the Congregation of Notre-Dame. This institute received its civil charter through letters patent from Louis XIV in 1671, its canonical recognition from the Bishop of Quebec, Mgr de Laval, in 1676, and subsequently the approval of its constitutions and the taking of the first vows in 1698. A pioneer of education and social work in New France, she extended her schools to several points in the colony, from Montreal to the Île d'Orléans.

The spirituality of Marguerite Bourgeoys is rooted in a Marian devotion that guided her entire life: she wanted her companions to lead, in imitation of the Virgin's "traveling life" among men, an apostolic existence that was not cloistered, free to go and instruct and assist wherever the need was felt. Tradition reports that at the decisive moment of her missionary vocation, she received an interior assurance, "Go, I will not abandon you," a word she attributed to the Virgin. She wanted her sisters to be distinguished by a spirit of humility, simplicity, docility, poverty, and abandonment to Divine Providence. Witnesses to her life highlighted her heroic poverty, her tireless dedication, and her constant fidelity to the will of God, through the trials of a nascent colony, fires, bereavements, and material difficulties. Her reputation for holiness, already vivid during her lifetime, manifested itself brilliantly at her death, which occurred, according to accounts, after she had offered her life in prayer for the recovery of a young sick sister.

The cause of Marguerite Bourgeoys was introduced in Montreal in 1869 by Bishop Ignace Bourget, then presented in Rome in 1878. After the examination of her life and reputation for holiness, she was beatified on November 12, 1950, by Pope Pius XII, following healings attributed to her intercession and held to be inexplicable. The vote of the consistory in favor of the canonization took place on May 24, 1982, and John Paul II proclaimed Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys on October 31, 1982, in Rome, making her the first saint born or having lived in Canada. A great Eucharistic celebration subsequently brought together, on November 26, 1982, approximately twenty thousand people at the Montreal Forum. Her liturgical feast is set for January 12, the anniversary of her death. Recognized by the Church as the "mother of the colony" and the first educator of Ville-Marie, she is honored as the founder of the first non-cloistered women's congregation in the Catholic Church.

The legacy of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys remains inseparable from the Congregation of Notre-Dame, which she founded and which still pursues its educational and pastoral mission today in several countries across America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Montreal, the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, which she had built, preserves her tomb and houses the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum in Old Montreal, places of memory and pilgrimage. Numerous schools, parishes, and institutions bear her name in Quebec and beyond, perpetuating her intuition of a Christian education accessible to modest families as well as the most destitute. A tutelary figure in the history of Montreal and education in Canada, and the first Canadian saint, she is honored as a pioneer whose educational work and sense of hospitality continue to inspire the religious communities and teachers who claim her as their inspiration.