Bourgeoys << bur ZHWAH >> , Saint Marguerite (1620-1700), was a French educator and missionary in New France during the 1600’s. New France was the French colonial empire in North America . Bourgeoys established the first school in Ville-Marie (present-day Montreal , Quebec ). She also founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal, a Roman Catholic community of women devoted to teaching. Bourgeoys is considered one of the co-founders of Montreal. She became a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1982.
Bourgeoys was born on April 17, 1620, in Troyes, France , into a large, middle-class family. In 1640, at a religious procession, Bourgeoys became inspired to serve God. She joined a group of young women teachers associated with a Catholic convent in Troyes and dedicated to teaching poor children. The group’s director, Louise Chomedey, was the sister of Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, the governor of Ville-Marie in New France. Bourgeoys met Maisonneuve in 1652. She decided to go to Ville-Marie to educate its children.
Bourgeoys sailed to Ville-Marie in 1653. At that time, the settlement was only about 10 years old and had fewer than 200 people. Bourgeoys organized the construction of the first stone chapel in the town. It was completed in 1675. Today, the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours stands at the site of the original chapel. Bourgeoys opened Ville-Marie’s first school, which provided free education, in a stable in 1658.
Bourgeoys recruited women from France and New France to help her in her work. The women formed a kind of unofficial religious order (sisterhood of nuns ) that later became the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal. They educated local children and taught pioneer women the domestic skills they needed to succeed as wives and mothers, all free of charge. Their teaching activities eventually spread to rural areas, First Nation (Native American) settlements, and the town of Quebec. Unlike most female religious orders, Bourgeoys’s group was uncloistered—that is, they did not live apart from society. This arrangement was highly unusual in the 1600’s.
King Louis XIV of France granted the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal civil recognition in 1671. In 1676, Bishop François de Laval of Quebec formally recognized the Congrégation as a religious order. Bourgeoys retired as leader of the order in 1693. The Catholic Church approved the order’s rule (guidelines for living) in 1698.
Bourgeoys died at Ville-Marie on Jan. 12, 1700. She was canonized (declared a saint) on Oct. 31, 1982. Bourgeoys’s remains are in the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in Montreal. The order that she founded continues to do educational and missionary work in several countries around the world.
