BOUROGEOYS, MARCUERITE, VENERABILE

BOUROUGEOYS, MARGUERITE, Venerable. – Foundress of the Congregation of Notre-Dame (see), born at Troyes on 17 April 1620, died at Montréal on 12 January 1700. Of modest social standing, she soon felt drawn to the religious life and sought admission first to the Carmelites and then to the Poor Clares, but was not accepted. In 1653 she accompanied de Maisonneuve to Canada, where at Villemarie, now Montréal, she began her work as an educator of youth. The undertaking developed most promisingly, and the Venerable made three journeys to France to recruit companions and to obtain approval of the rules of her Institute. She lived a heroic life of privation and hardship. Her cause of beatification is under way; on 19 June 1910 the decree on the heroicity of her virtues was published.