DU FROST DE LAJEMMERAIS, widow d'Youville, Marie-Marguerite, venerable. — A woman eminent for holiness of life, strength of character, and administrative ability, founder of the Sisters of Charity of Montréal, known by the name of Soeurs Grises; born of a noble family of Breton origin at Varennes (Canada) on 15 October 1701; died at Montréal on 23 December 1771. She married, on 12 August 1722, Francesco Maddalena d'Youville, who died on 4 July 1730, leaving her in precarious financial circumstances. The mother of six children, two of whom became priests. On the advice of the superior of the Montréal seminary, Luigi Normant du Faradon, she devoted herself to caring for the poor; toward the end of 1737 she gathered around her for this purpose several pious companions, giving rise to a new charitable institution, which immediately became the object of slander and persecution. To these were added a long illness of D. (seven years) and severe financial difficulties, aggravated by a fire that destroyed the house where she had sheltered her poor (31 January 1745). On the following 2 February she signed with her companions an agreement called Engagements primitifs, regarded as the foundation charter of the Congregation, which was canonically recognized in 1755.
On 27 August 1747, the authorities of the Canadian colony entrusted her with the general hospital, which was nearing ruin, founded in 1694 and until then directed by the Charon brothers. D. reopened it in October of the same year, adding two wards: one called Jéricho for fallen women, and another (from 1754), now called Crèche d'Youville, for foundlings (by the end of 1947, 56,051 had been admitted). Despite her heroic efforts to place the hospital on a sound footing, she was the object of a covert hostility on the part of the intendant Francesco Bigot, which culminated in the temporary suppression of the hospital in 1750. Nevertheless, Luigi XV once again entrusted its direction to her by letters patent dated 3 June 1753. In this way, thanks to her indomitable will, the hospital and its community were able to overcome the crisis caused by the English occupation of the colony (1760) and by the great fire that reduced the hospital and a large part of Montréal to ashes (1765). The cause of beatification of D. was introduced on 28 April 1890.