St. Marguerite Bourgeoys
St. Marguerite Bourgeoys
Canonized By: Pope John Paul II
Marguerite had survived many threats in the twenty-six years she had been in wilderness of Canada. She had lived through Iroquois attacks, a fire that destroyed her small village, plagues on the ships that she took back and forth to France, but nothing threatened her dreams and hopes more than what her own bishop said to her in 1679. He told her that she had to join her Congregation of Notre Dame with its teaching sisters to a cloistered religious order of Ursulines. This was not the first time she'd heard this command. Whether from a misplaced desire to protect her Sisters or from discomfort in dealing with an active religious order of women, bishops had long wanted to fit her into the usual mold of cloistered orders.
But Marguerite had overcome many challenges to get to this day and was not deterred. In her own native France, she had belonged to a sodality of women who cared for the sick.
The stories of hardships and dangers in Montreal that made other people shiver had awakened a call from God in her to serve the Native Americans and settlers who endured this adversity. She met with the governor of what was then called Ville Marie and convinced him she was the person he was looking for to help start a school for the children of Montreal.
When she arrived in Ville Marie, as it was called then, she found that few children survived to school age. She helped the remarkable Jeanne Mance, who ran the hospital, to change this tragedy. When she finally had children to teach, she had to set to up school in a stable.
So she was not ready to surrender to the bishop. There was too much at stake. She reminded him that the Ursulines because they were cloistered could not go out and teach, as her Sisters had done. The poor and uneducated would not and could not travel to a Quebec cloister over miles of frontier at the risk of their lives.
But her Sisters were more than willing to live in huts in order to fulfill their call from God. She had set up schools all over the territory, not just for children. When the king, in well-meaning ignorance, had sent untrained orphans over to be colonists she had set up a school for the women to teach them how to survive and thrive in Canada.
How could they do the work for God that they had done so well in a cloister?
The bishop replied, "I cannot doubt, Mother Bourgeoys, that you will succeed in moving heaven and earth as you have moved me!" The Congregation remained an active teaching order, one of the very first of its kind for women. Their rule had to go through one more attempt at turning them into a cloister but Marguerite lived to see the triumph when their Rule was made official in 1698. She was canonized in 1982 by Pope John Paul II.
In Her Footsteps:Remember someone who taught you something very important. How did this person change your life? Write a letter or contact this person in some other way to let them know this.
Prayer:Blessed Marguerite Bourgeoys, you survived attacks of all kinds on your faith and service. Help me keep my vocation strong despite the threats of the world and my own doubts. Amen
Copyright 1996-2000 by Terry Matz. All Rights Reserved.
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St.Marguerite Bourgeoys please pray for me and my family
God bless you
Amen
Margaret Bourgeoy's life inspires me to continue to work for the poor and under-served in my community.
Please pray for Jacob that he finds the right path and peace, for his mother that the doctors can slow the prgression of her disease and for al cancer patients that we deal with our disease with grace and dignity. Thank you.
St. Maguerite Bourgeoys, Please continue to pray for me to be faithful in my commitment to God and to others.
Please pray for me St. Marguerite and my family..........thank you and God Bless You.
Dear Saint,
Help me to pray continuously in order to discern the call of God. Enable me to be strong, loving and compassionate as you were in times of troubles and struggles. Teach me to keep my heart pure and my conscience honest. Pray for me that I would become a worthy instrument in the hands our Blessed Lord to fulfill his will on earth. Amen.
St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, pray for me now. I feel lonely, desolate and forlorn. Help to pick myself up, dust myself and move on. Amen.
Please pray that my brain be healed.
St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, thank you for your guidance and compassion. Please continue to guide me and help me to live out our shared vocation.
It didn't really say about what symbols that I can use but iI probably wasn't looking hard enough. But ya it was helpful
Thank you St Marguerite for your intercession...May your perseverence inspire all who seek the will of God!
Blessed Marguerite Bourgeoys, please intercede for us. You who survived attacks of all kinds on your faith and service. Help me keep my faith strong despite the threats of the world and my own doubts. Amen
Dear St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, Please pray for me to fulfill my commitments to others. Thank You.
What a deep love & faith to mirror her incredible pseronal strength. Marguerite, please pray for us.
Dear St. Marguerite Bourgeouys, what a great woman of faith, determination and steadfastness. You and your little band of women lived in the extreme cold out in the wilderness among the native Indians solely with the view to helping them. What astounds me is your strength of character to endure such terrible hardship of extreme weather, dangerous travel etc. And you were single-minded of purpose in this mission which God gave you. Nothing, nothing could come in your way, not even the Bishop. Dear saint who administered to the poor, undernourished, illiterate children, you are our inspiration. Pray for us. Grant healing to all children who suffer from terrible afflictions, seizures, and developmental delays. Today on you feast day, through your intercession in Heaven, grant a complete cure to all children suffering from fragile X. I recommend them to your special care and personal intercession. You stormed Heaven when you were on earth. Do it now in the presence of the Blessed Trinity. Grant success in answer to our prayers. Amen.
It is indeed very enriching to read about this first femail saint of Canada. They lived in huts in the cold Winter of Montreal, imagine!! All with a zeal and purpose. It is exciting and inspiring that this young heroic woman could stand up to the bishop to express her convictions, already in the middle ages! We are grateful to Pope John Paull that he canonized this great woman!
thanks for this information. it was really helpful. :)
...What a Great Story of a Great Woman of God...She stayed strong...Stayed the course...and listed to the "Still Small Voice of the The Most Holy Spirit"...And she lived a Productive - Holy - Purposeful Life, for the Lord who gave A L L for her,
she was able to give her A L L for Him too !
She reminds me of a woman of God I met from Ohio, let's call her Karen (Mc Neill)
she's the Holiest, most Loving, and giving woman I've ever had the pure pleasure to meet, I only wish I could meet someone like her and be so Blessed as to work beside her daily... Because we'd both be serving our Lord as we belive He has called us, and maybe even share our lives together. Where's my Karen, only God knows, because "God Sees" (ALL) ...St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, Pray for Us ! MJH
It is easy to understand the bishop's fears. What if the nuns were captured by the Iroquois? Would they be raped, scalped, made into slaves? More rumour than fact surrounded relations between settlers and native tribes at that time. And it was the bishop's charge to protect his people. Who could hear this story without feeling a great admiration for those women who persisted in helping the natives improve their physical health, and under the hardest possible conditions, extended literacy to them and their children. They overcame enormous obstacles and were successful beyond measure..
This should be made into a movie.
back in 1997 one of my friends was trying to get pregnant nothing was going well for her so she told me to pray for her.so I put her onto my list. next thing you know she was pregnant and the baby was healthy.so she is the top of my saints list.