DU FOUR (de Furno), ANTOINE. - French preacher and ascetical writer, d. in June 1509. He became a Dominican in Orléans, his native city, and completed his studies in Paris. He preached with great success and enjoyed a close intimacy with Louis XII, of whom he was confessor. Promoted in 1506 at the king’s request to the episcopal see of Marseille, he was able to take possession of it only two years later, since the sovereign could not bear to part with him. He died while accompanying Louis XII on his journey to Italy.
Of his works there were published: *Paraphrase sur les sept psaumes pénitentiaux*, and *La diète du salut contenant cinquante méditations sur la passion de nostre Sauveur Jésus Christ*, both issued in Paris, 1557–74.
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DU FROST de LAJEMMERIAIS, Marie-Marguerite d’Youville, widow, venerable. - A woman distinguished by the holiness of her life, strength of character, and administrative skill, founder of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, known as the Soeurs Grises, b. into a noble family of Breton origin at Varennes (Canada), 15 Oct 1701, d. at Montreal, 23 Dec 1771. She married, 12 Aug 1722, François-Madeleine d’Youville, who died 4 July 1730, leaving her in straitened financial circumstances. Mother of six children, two of whom became priests. Acting on the advice of the superior of the Montreal seminary, Louis Normant du Faradon, she devoted herself to the care of the poor; toward the end of 1737 she gathered a few companions for this purpose, thereby founding a new charitable institution which soon became the object of calumny and persecution. To these trials were added a long illness of seven years’ duration and severe financial hardships, aggravated by a fire that destroyed the house where she had sheltered her poor (31 Jan 1745). On 2 Feb of the following year she and her companions signed a document called the *Engagements primitifs*, regarded as the founding charter of the congregation, which received canonical recognition in 1755.
On 27 Aug 1747 the authorities of the Canadian colony entrusted to her the General Hospital, founded in 1694 and hitherto directed by the Brothers of Charity. She reopened it in October of the same year, adding two new sections: one called *Féricho* for fallen women, and another (from 1754) now known as the *Crèche d’Ouville* for foundlings. In her efforts to give the hospital a proper organization, she incurred the veiled hostility of the intendant, François Bigot, which culminated in the temporary suppression of the hospital in 1750. Yet Louis XV restored it to her by letters patent dated 3 June 1753. Thus, thanks to her indomitable will, the hospital and her community were able to weather the crisis occasioned by the English occupation of the colony (1760) and the great fire that reduced the hospital and much of Montreal to ashes (1765). The cause for her beatification was introduced on 28 Apr 1800.