St Marguerite Bourgeoys

Marguerite was the 6th of 12 brothers and sisters! When Marguerite was 27 she asked God to tell her what to do with her life.  The governor of Montreal, Canada, had come to France in search of teachers for the “new world”.  The Governor asked if Marguerite would come to Montreal to teach school and religion classes and she said yes.  She bravely sailed across the ocean; it took her 5 months to get to Canada!  When she first arrived in Canada many people were poor and having a hard time.  Marguerite did all she could to hep these new Canadians make a good life for themselves, especially making sure the kids were well taken care of and healthy.  Marguerite began opening schools and finding more women that wanted to help her teach all the kids in Canada.  These teachers became the first nuns of the Congregation of Notre Dame (Our Lady).  Marguerite and her sisters did so much to help the people of Montreal, even when things were hard.  On December 31, 1699, a young sister was very sick and Mother Marguerite asked God to let her be sick instead of the young sister.  By the morning of January 1, 1700, the sister was completely well and Mother Marguerite became sick and died on January 12, 1700.