From American Catholic
“God
closes a door and then opens a window,” people sometimes say when
dealing with their own disappointment or someone else’s. That was
certainly true in Marguerite’s case. Children from European as well as
Native American backgrounds in seventeenth-century Canada benefited
from her great zeal and unshakable trust in God’s providence.
Born the sixth of 12 children in Troyes, France, Marguerite at the
age of 20 believed that she was called to religious life. Her
applications to the Carmelites and Poor Clares were unsuccessful. A
priest friend suggested that perhaps God had other plans for her.
In
1654, the governor of the French settlement in Canada visited his
sister, an Augustinian canoness in Troyes. Marguerite belonged to a
sodality connected to that convent. The governor invited her to come to
Canada and start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of
Montreal). When she arrived, the colony numbered 200 people with a
hospital and a Jesuit mission chapel.
Soon after starting a
school, she realized her need for coworkers. Returning to Troyes, she
recruited a friend, Catherine Crolo, and two other young women. In 1667
they added classes at their school for Indian children. A second trip
to France three years later resulted in six more young women and a
letter from King Louis XIV, authorizing the school. The Congregation of
Notre Dame was established in 1676 but its members did not make formal
religious profession until 1698 when their Rule and constitutions were
approved.
Marguerite established a school for Indian girls in
Montreal. At the age of 69, she walked from Montreal to Quebec in
response to the bishop’s request to establish a community of her
sisters in that city. By the time she died, she was referred to as the
“Mother of the Colony.” Marguerite was canonized in 1982.
Comment:
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.
Quote:
In
his homily at her canonization, Pope John Paul II said, “...in
particular, she [Marguerite] contributed to building up that new
country [Canada], realizing the determining role of women, and she
diligently strove toward their formation in a deeply Christian spirit.”
He noted that she watched over her students with affection and
confidence “in order to prepare them to become wives and worthy
mothers, Christians, cultured, hardworking, radiant mothers.”
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