Marguerite Bourgeoys

Life events

1. Born — 1620

   Marguerite Bourgeoys was born on 17 April 1620 in Troyes, in the ancient province of Champagne, Kingdom of France, the sixth of twelve children of Abraham Bourgeoys and Guillemette Garnier.

2. Other

   At approximately age 15, Bourgeoys joined the sodality affiliated with the Congregation Notre-Dame in Troyes, a lay group whose members were educated by the convent's canonesses to teach religion and practical skills to poor girls outside the cloister.

3. Pilgrimage — 1653

   In early 1653, Bourgeoys accepted the invitation of Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, governor of Ville-Marie, to establish a congregation and school in New France. She sailed aboard the Saint-Nicholas with approximately 100 colonists, arriving at Quebec City on 22 September 1653.

4. Other — 1658

   In April 1658, de Maisonneuve provided Bourgeoys a vacant stone stable to serve as a schoolhouse — the beginning of public schooling in Montreal. That same year she returned to France to recruit additional women teachers for the colony.

5. Council — 1669

   In 1669, Bourgeoys obtained an ordinance from François de Laval, the Apostolic Vicar of New France, permitting the Congregation Notre-Dame to teach across the entire island of Montreal and anywhere else in the colony that required their services.

6. Other — 1671

   By May 1671, Bourgeoys had met with Louis XIV at Versailles and secured letters patent recognizing her sisters as 'secular Sisters', protecting the congregation from being forced into a cloistered life. Louis XIV's written assessment noted that she had built permanent buildings and provided free instruction at no cost to the colony.

7. Other — 1698

   On 1 July 1698, the Congregation Notre-Dame was canonically constituted as a religious community, formalizing the legal status of the uncloistered sisterhood Bourgeoys had built over four decades in New France.

8. Died — 1700

   Bourgeoys died in Montreal on 12 January 1700, having spent her final two years in prayer and writing her autobiography, fragments of which survive. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 31 October 1982 as the first female saint of Canada.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Bourgeoys founded one of the first uncloistered religious communities in the Catholic Church — the Congregation of Notre-Dame of Montreal — whose members taught freely in villages and towns across New France rather than operating from within a convent enclosure. (likely)
• Bourgeoys and her companions housed and cared for the filles du roi ('King's Daughters') — impoverished or orphaned women whose passage to New France was funded by the French Crown to marry settlers — and also interviewed prospective male colonists seeking wives. (likely)
• In 1678, Bourgeoys established a school at Kahnawake, the mission village south of Montreal whose population was primarily converted Mohawk and other Iroquois peoples — an early instance of First Nations education within the Congregation's mission. (likely)
• Louis XIV's letters patent of 1671 included a personal testimonial: 'Not only has (Marguerite Bourgeoys) performed the office of schoolmistress by giving free instruction to the young girls in all occupations … far from being a liability to the country, she had built permanent buildings.' (certain)
• The canonization process for Bourgeoys began in 1878 when Pope Leo XIII declared her 'venerable'; Pope Pius XII beatified her in November 1950. On 31 October 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized her, making her the first female saint of Canada. (certain)