St. Marguerite d’Youville is the first native-born Canadian to become a canonized saint in the Catholic Church.

Marguerite was born in Varennes, Quebec, just outside Montreal on October 15, 1701. Her father was an army officer and a member of the bourgeoisie. Her father died when Marguerite was only seven years old, leaving the family of six children in dire poverty.

Marguerite's aristocratic grandfather, Pierre Boucher, provided her with the means to study with the Ursuline sisters and obtain a good education.

When she was twenty-one, Marguerite was married to François You de la Découverte (Youville), a man decidedly below her in social station and education. François was a decadent, immoral man. He and his brothers were part of the lucrative fur trade, and they used their connections with the native populations to sell them illegal alcohol. Marguerite was shocked by her husband’s egregious misuse of and disregard for Native Americans.

Marguerite was often left alone as her husband was often gone on trading expeditions. Despite his absences, they had five children, but only two of their boys, François and Charles, survived childhood. In 1730, her husband François passed away, and Marguerite worked hard to pay off her husband's debts and provide for her young sons.

In the midst of her difficult marriage, Marguerite developed a devotion to the Holy Family, particularly to Our Lady. Her younger son, Charles, became a priest and the biographer of his mother. He noted her increased piety and her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament that had developed throughout her distressing marriage.

In 1737, Francois, her eldest son, entered the seminary in Montreal. Once he began his seminary education, Marguerite began to form a religious community. The younger son, Charles, lived with Marguerite and her budding religious community until he, too, joined the seminary. In the biography of his mother, Charles reported the women's experience founding their community from their very first days of caring for the poor, the sick, for women who were paralyzed, who suffered from mental illness and anguish, and the blind.

The women were despised by their neighbors. The neighborhood hated them, called them drunkards and thought they must be mad, caring for the mentally ill and providing them with charity. They believed that Marguerite was carrying on her husband’s liquor trade, dealing alcohol to these underprivileged women. Once, the parish priest refused to allow Marguerite and her companions to receive the Eucharist at Sunday mass. The neighbors called them the "Soeurs Grises," the Grey Sisters.

Marguerite and her community lived very simply, in solidarity with the destitute populations they served: they did their washing in the river and earned their keep by sewing uniforms for the French troops.

In 1745, the sisters developed a simple rule of life, called their Original Commitment, which all sisters still sign to this day. Shortly thereafter, a terrible fire gutted the home where they lived. Much like the brave Fr. Sorin, Mother Marguerite was undaunted by the disaster. The sudden loss of her material goods did not make her doubt her mission but only made her press on all the more to bring her vision to life. Soon after the fire, the wealthy merchant of Montreal offered her and her community a free house in which to live.

Due to steep debts, the General Hospital in Montreal nearly shut its doors in 1747. But Marguerite won a heated battle to become the hospital’s director in order to keep it open. And, in 1755, Bishop de Pontbriand of Quebec formally confirmed their rule. Her order's official title became Sisters of Charity of the General Hospital, but the community continued to be known by the sobriquet "the Grey Sisters." Marguerite said, “Keeping the name of the Grey Nuns will remind us of the insults of the beginnings and keep us humble."

During the Franco-British Struggle for Canada, Montreal finally surrendered to the British troops in 1759. Marguerite and her sisters cared for French and British soldiers alike, providing care and kindness to all of the wounded soldiers. In fact, Marguerite bought back a British soldier from captivity and brought him to the hospital for care.

Marguerite called the poor "our masters," refusing care to no one. In one harsh Canadian winter, Marguerite found an abandoned baby in the snow and took it as a sign that they should open orphanages. They opened a home for orphans, for runaway and freed slaves, for Native Americans, for women who had been forced into prostitution and for the mentally handicapped.

In 1765, when Mother Marguerite was sixty-four, the sisters suffered another fire in one of their homes. Only one small statue of Our Lady escaped the flames. But the Grey Sisters did not want for help for long. The Canadian governor, the Native American tribes, and the British government all came to their aid. The aid that flowed from all sides was a testament to indiscriminate charity and love that Marguerite and her sisters poured out on the less fortunate around them.

Mother Marguerite was fond of saying: “We need crosses in order to reach heaven.” She patiently embraced the crosses in her life and used them to grow closer to God.

Marguerite died in December 1771, One of the sisters summarized her life as one full of love: "She loved greatly, Jesus Christ and the poor." In 1959, Pope John XXIII beatified Marguerite, calling her the "Mother of Universal Charity." Marguerite was canonized by Pope John Paul II on December 9, 1990. She is the patron saint of widows, those suffering from difficult marriages, and for parents who have lost young children.

St. Marguerite d’Youville, steadfast and patient "universal mother of charity"—pray for us!

Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Marguerite d'Youville is in the public domain. Last accessed November 21, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.