Marguerite Bourgeoys

Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys CND
Portrait of Blessed Marguerite Bourgeoys CND by Antoine Plamondon
Virgin
Born	(1620-04-17)17 April 1620 Troyes, Champagne, Kingdom of France
Died	12 January 1700(1700-01-12) (aged 79) Fort Ville-Marie, New France, French Colonial Empire[1]
Venerated in	Catholic Church (Canada and the United States) Anglican Church of Canada
Beatified	12 November 1950 by Pope Pius XII
Canonized	31 October 1982, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Feast	12 January
Patronage	against poverty; loss of parents; people rejected by religious orders[2]

Marguerite Bourgeoys, CND (17 April 1620 – 12 January 1700), was a French religious sister and founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal in the colony of New France, now part of Québec, Canada.

Born in Troyes, she became part of a sodality, ministering to the poor from outside the convent. She was recruited by the governor of Montreal to set up a convent in New France, and she sailed to Fort Ville-Marie (now Montreal) by 1653. There she developed the convent. She and her congregation educated young girls, the poor, and children of First Nations until shortly before her death in early 1700.

She is significant for developing one of the first uncloistered religious communities in the Catholic Church.^[3] Declared "venerable" by the pope in 1878, she was canonized in 1982 as the first female saint of Canada.