Marguerite Bourgeoys
Marguerite Bourgeoys was born in Troyes, Grand Est, France on April 17th, 1620 and is the Religious Leader. At the age of 79, Marguerite Bourgeoys biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 79 years old, Marguerite Bourgeoys physical status not available right now. We will update Marguerite Bourgeoys's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.
Marguerite Bourgeoys, C.N.D. (17 April 1620–12 January 1700), was a French nun and founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal in the colony of New France, now part of Québec, Canada.
Born in Troyes, she traveled to Fort Ville-Marie (now Montreal) by 1653, where she developed the convent and educated young girls, the poor, and children of First Nations until shortly before her death at the turn of the 18th century.
She is also significant for developing one of the first uncloistered religious communities in the Catholic Church.
Declared "venerable" by the pope in 1878, she was canonized in 1982 and declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
Early life
Marguerite Bourgeoys was born on 17 April 1620 in Troyes, then in the ancient Province of Champagne in the Kingdom of France. The daughter of Abraham Bourgeoys and Guillemette Garnier, she was the seventh of their thirteen children.
As a girl, Bourgeoys was never much interested in joining the confraternity of the Congregation Notre-Dame attached to the monastery in town. It had been founded in 1597 by Alix Le Clerc, dedicated to the education of the poor. The canonesses of the monastery helped the poor, but remained cloistered. They were not allowed to teach outside the cloister. To reach poor young girls who could not afford to board within the cloister as students, they relied upon a sodality, whose members they would educate in both religion and pedagogy. Marguerite decided at about age 15 to join the sodality affiliated with the Congregation.
in 1652 Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, the Governor of the French settlement at Montreal in New France, visited his sister, an Augustinian canoness in Troyes. She directed the sodality to which Bourgeoys belonged. The governor invited Marguerite Bourgeoys to come to Canada and start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of Montreal).
Before February 1653, Bourgeoys accepted the assignment to set up a congregation and a mission in New France. She set sail on the Saint-Nicholas from France, along with approximately 100 other colonists, mostly men. They had been recruited and signed to working contracts.
Life in the colony
Upon her arrival in the port of Quebec City on the following 22 September, Bourgeoys was offered hospitality with the Ursuline nuns there while transportation to Ville-Marie was arranged. She declined the offer and spent her stay in Quebec living alongside poor settlers. The colony was so small that Bourgeoys would have soon come to know practically everyone.
During these early years, Bourgeoys initiated institution building. In 1657 she organized the formation of a work party to build Ville-Marie's first permanent church - the Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel (French: Bonsecours), known in English as the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel. In April 1658 she was provided with a vacant stone stable by de Maisonneuve, founder of Ville Marie, to serve as a schoolhouse for her students. This was the beginning of public schooling in Montreal, which Bourgeoys established five years after arrival.
Soon after receiving the stable, Bourgeoys departed for France to recruit more women to serve as teachers for the colony. She combined this goal with housing and caring for the King's Daughters or filles du roi, as they are known in Quebec, after they arrived from France. These were orphan girls sent by the Crown to marry and create families in the colony. Bourgeoys and her four companions also interviewed the male settlers who came to the settlement seeking a wife.
Later life
The small group of women began to follow a religious way of life, establishing periods of common prayer and meals. The women also worked independently in various villages and towns throughout the colony, teaching the local children. During this three-year period, Bourgeoys and her small community sought official recognition and legitimacy from both the Crown and the religious establishment in New France. In 1669, Bourgeoys had an audience with François de Laval, the Apostolic Vicar of New France and its highest religious authority. He ultimately issued an ordinance that gave permission to the Congregation Notre-Dame to teach on the entire island of Montreal, as well as anywhere else in the colony that considered their services as necessary.
In 1670 Bourgeoys returned to France again, seeking an audience with the King to protect her community from being cloistered. She left with no money or clothing, only with a letter of recommendation by Jean Talon, Royal Intendant of the colony; he praised her great contribution to its future. By May 1671, she had met with Louis XIV, and had obtained letters patent from him that secured the viability of her community in New France as "secular Sisters". The French monarch wrote: "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 (...)."
