Her turn toward God's calling began in , not long after her mother's death. On Oct. She also sought admission to several religious orders, including the Carmelites, but was rejected.
Being turned down, the teacher from Troyes was free to volunteer for a voyage to the Canadian colony of Quebec. Life in the colony was physically very difficult.
When Marguerite arrived, she found that children were not likely to survive to an age suitable for attending school. She traveled back to France that year, and returned to Montreal with three more teachers and an assistant. The founding of the order involved two further trips to France in and Such a foundation occasioned much suffering and the one who took the initiative was not spared.
But the work progressed. The Constitutions of the Community were approved in The foundation having been assured, Sister Bourgeoys could leave the work to others. She died in Montreal on January 12, , acknowledged for her holiness of life.
Her last generous act was to offer herself as a sacrifice of prayer for the return to health of a young Sister. Forty memberg of the Congregation de Notre-Dame were there to continue her work. The educative and apostolic efforts of Marguerite Bourgeoys continue through the commitment of the members of the community that she founded. The resignation of Sister Bourgeoys was finally accepted at Montreal in ; Sister Barbier was elected superior general. But finally, with the help of M.
She died a few days later. The unanimity of the praises addressed to her cannot be misleading. But she adapted what she had acquired to the setting of New France. The competence of the teacher seems to be a requirement of our era. In New France, in the 17th century, she founded a community of non-cloistered sisters, an extraordinary innovation at that time, for the cloistered life was the only one known for women.
She did not succeed without difficulties. Marguerite Bourgeoys hit upon a formula which was wonderfully suited to the new country. The uniform costume given by Marguerite Bourgeoys to her nuns did not seem very well suited, one would say, to such a laborious life.
In this entirely original fashion Marguerite Bourgeoys built an edifice of which the survival is certainly the most convincing proof that its mysticism is based upon realism. Yet at her death in there were 40 sisters to continue her work. By the community numbered 6, nuns. At the age of 78 Marguerite Bourgeoys wrote her memoirs. This point of view and this mood account for the style and tone of the memoirs and the choice of the memories.
She was a woman of faith and deeply committed to the service of the Gospels. She was personally motivated by the missionary journeying of Mary in service to her cousin, Elizabeth, and desired to form a group of uncloistered women who would imitate Mary in this mystery of the Visitation. Marguerite had an exceptional and practical love of God and neighbor.
She had a great desire to serve the Church in its most local form, the parish.
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