Welcome to INSPIRING LIVES, a series on the lives of Saints in the catholic
church from around the world. In this series we bring you alive the heroic lives
lived by the saints. Saints are holy people who lived ordinary lives in extraordinary
ways. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her
unique gifts. These saints are examples of great holiness and virtue, and thereby
inspires others to do so. Their stories are unique, which inspire and invite us to
be rooted in our faith. God calls each one of us to be a saint. In this series
we bring you those saints who are canonized by the Pope John Paul II. Last week
we listened to the fascinating story of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who was canonized
on 10th October 1982 in Rome. His holiness was a limitless, passionate
desire to convert the whole world to God. And his beloved Blessed Virgin was his inspiration.
In December of 1940, he wrote: The real conflict is inner conflict. Beyond armies
of occupation and the catacombs of concentration camps, there are two irreconcilable
enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are
victories on the battle-field if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal
selves? He laid down his life taking the place of a fellow prisoner in the
concentration camp of Nazis in 1941. Today we shall listen to the heroic life
of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700). She was canonized on 31st
October 1982 in Rome, and became the first woman saint in the Canadian Church. xxx
“All I have ever desired most deeply and what I still most ardently wish is
that the great precept of the love of God above all things and of the neighbour as
oneself be written in every heart.” So wrote Marguerite Bourgeoys, who left the security
of a 17th century French bourgeoisie life to serve the early pioneers in
New France. She assisted in bringing the gospel to the local people, established schools,
taught vocational and domestic skills to women, helped the poor, and founded the Congrégation
de Notre-Dame de Montréal. Children from European as well as Native American backgrounds
in the 17th century Canada benefited from her great zeal and unshakable
trust in God’s providence.
Marguerite was born the sixth of 12 children in
the city of Troyes, the ancient capital of the province of Champagne, in France, on
Good Friday 1620. The same day she was baptized in the parish church, Saint-Jean.
Her father was a master candle maker and an official in the city mint, giving the
family a respected position in the community.
Marguerite was 19 years of age
when she lost her mother. The following year, 1640, in the course of a procession
held on 7th October, in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, she had an unforgettable
experience. Her eyes rested on a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and at that moment
she felt inspired to withdraw from the world and to consecrate herself to the service
of God. With that unchanging fidelity to what she believed to be God's will for her,
she set about to discern her specific vocation. Late in life, she wrote about that
experience: “I gave myself to God in 1640.” Marguerite believed that she was called
to religious life. But her applications to the Carmelites and Poor Clares were unsuccessful.
A priest friend then suggested that perhaps God had other plans for her. Later she
became a member of the extern Congregation of Troyes, an association of young girls
devoted to the charitable work of teaching children in the poor districts of the town.
While engaged in this apostolate she sensed a first call to missionary life. The year
was 1642. Her call was rendered concrete in 1652 when she met Monsieur de Maisonneuve,
founder and governor of the settlement begun in New France. He was in search of someone
who would volunteer her services for the gratuitous instruction of the French and
Indian children. xxx The governor invited Marguerite to come to Canada and
start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of Montreal). Marguerite accepted
the invitation and left Troyes in February 1653, after giving away all of her parents'
inheritance to other members of the family. The decision to go to Montreal was not
easy for Marguerite. It meant leaving the poor of Troyes, and it also seemed to mean
abandoning the idea of a community dedicated to honouring the life of Mary, the mother
of Jesus. When she arrived in Montreal on the following November, the colony numbered
200 people with a hospital and a Jesuit mission chapel. In order to encourage
the colonists in their faith expression, Marguerite arranged for the restoration of
the Cross on Mount Royal which had been destroyed by hostile Indians. She also constructed
a chapel to honor Our Lady of Good Help. Convinced of the importance of the family
in the building of this new country, and perceiving the significance of the role of
women, she devoted herself to the task of preparing them whose vocation it would be
to preside in a home.
In 1658, she opened the first school in Montreal in
a stable which had been given to her by the governor. Soon after starting the school,
she realized her need for coworkers. In 1659 she returned to France to recruit more
teachers. She returned with four; in 1670, a second trip to France resulted in six
more young women and a letter from King Louis XIV, authorizing the school. These courageous
women became the first sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Thus were initiated
a school system and a network of social services which gradually extended through
the whole country, and which led people to refer to Marguerite as "Mother of the Colony". xxx
In 1658, the group of teachers who associated themselves with Marguerite in her
life of prayer, of heroic poverty, and of untiring devotedness to the service of others,
presented the image of a religious institute. The group was inspired by Our Lady of
Voyages, and desired to remain uncloistered, the concept of an uncloistered community
being an innovation at that time. Such a foundation occasioned much suffering and
the one who took the initiative was not spared. But the work progressed. The Congregation
de Notre-Dame received its civil charter from Louis XIV in 1671, and canonical approbation
by decree of the Bishop of Quebec in 1676. In 1693, an aging Marguerite resigned as
the superior of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal. But she lived long enough
to see, in 1698, it’s Rule of Life approved, permitting the sisters to pronounce their
vows publicly for the first time. Thus the foundation having been assured, Sister
Marguerite died in Montreal on January 12, 1700, acknowledged for her holiness of
life. But, it was her death that served Christ more than anything. It was her death
that fulfilled Our Lord's Commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself". On the last
day of 1699, St. Marguerite Bourgeoys saw one of the sisters of her religious order
dying. She begged the Lord for the sister to be well and for her to take on the illness.
It was the next morning (Jan 1, 1700) that the sister became miraculously well, and
St. Marguerite Bourgeois was very ill. Twelve days later, St. Marguerite died.
xxx It’s
easy to become discouraged when plans that we think that God must endorse are frustrated.
Marguerite was called not to be a cloistered nun but to be a foundress and an educator.
God had not ignored her after all.
In his homily at her canonization, Pope
John Paul II said, “ she contributed to building up that new country, realizing the
determining role of women, and she diligently strove toward their formation in a deeply
Christian spirit.” A local clergyman wrote about her funeral to a friend: “Never
were there so many … as there were this morning at the funeral of this holy woman.
If the saints were canonized today as they were in olden times, tomorrow we would
be saying the mass of Saint Marguerite of Canada.”P.J. Joseph SJ