The Life of Venerable Sister Margaret Bourgeois

We behold a simple country girl forming the then astonishing project of going to Canada, in the hope of founding a city bearing the name of Ma

d towards Canada, she prayed unceasingly, consulted spiritual directors, listened respectfully to the voice of her superiors, and listened interiorly to the voice of heaven. Nothing could arrest or retard her progress, and she fearlessly set out for the new New World that claimed her zeal. At the age of ten she gathered around her little children to form them to virtues. At a later period she was to establish a religious Congregation in the Church, whose members should aspire to the highest sanctity. Scarcely had the vessel on which she embarked set sail, than her zeal was called into active service. She induced the entire ship's crew to unite in daily prayer and pious reading. Several soldiers falling sick, she nursed them with sisterly charity, eight of them dying in her arms. Arriving at her destination, she finds no home ready to receive her, and takes up her dwelling in a stable, which is for h

she relinquished her rights, and an unknown hand gave her sufficient money to make a clear purchase. But not only was her confidence in God most remarkable; she possessed all other virtues in an eminent degree. In youth she made a vow of chastity, and preserved that beautiful virtue amidst many dangerous occasions, compelling a regiment of soldiers to respect her, although she was frequently the only woman on board. Yet of all her personal virtues none was more extraordinary than her spirit of mortification. She seemed to live for the express purpose of afflicting her body, using her food always too hot or too cold, mixing ashes with her drink, sitting at meals in a painful position, sleeping on the bare earth with a wooden plank for her pillow, and taking little sleep at that. She never approached the fire in winter, and frequently made use of disciplines, hair-shirts, and a frightful crown of thorns, that she concealed on her head. How truly she hated her flesh such severe penances as these prove. When summoned to Quebec by her bishop, she made the journey on foot, through ice and snow, often wading across Canadian swamps. When she undertook a foun

heir Mistress, and loved to represent her instructing young virgins, and assisting to form the Church of Jesus Christ. She came to Canada for the express purpose of living in a city named after Mary-Ville-Marie. She called her Congregation Notre Dame-Our Lady-and wished that everything connected with it should bear the name of Mary. But the Queen of Heaven did not allow herself to be outdone in generosity. The statue shone with celestial light before the eyes of young Margaret at Troyes. On the Feast of the Assumption this privileged soul saw in the Holy Host an infant a thousand times more beautiful than the children of men, looking love into her eyes. In a dream she saw as distinctly as in life one of Mary's most devoted clients, M. de Maisonneuve, and finally the Blessed Virgin assured her personally of protection by the solemn words, "Go to Canada. I will never abandon you." If charity is the queen of virtues, Sister Bourgeois practised it to heroism. In girlhood she courageously put on her father's burial-shroud with her own hands, which charitable office for the poor be

he has been one of its most beautiful ornaments. Such names as those of Montcalm, and of Montgomery, are of less value in the sight of God, than the Christian he

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everal years, during which time the colonists were literally at the mercy of wild savages, to whom mercy was unknown. They lay treacherously concealed in the woods, and sallied forth with hatchet and tomahawk on their murderous rampage, when least expected, to pillage and burn the houses and then massacre the inhabitants. In those days it was impossible to labor singly in the fields. The tillers of the soil were obliged to work in groups, with a gun in one hand, and a scythe or spade in the other, often at the peril of their lives. These intrepid French Catholics had left peaceful, happy homes, and the blessings of a Christian government, for no other purpose than to convert wild Indians, who were absolutely under the dominion of the devil, and to spread abroad the glorious Faith over the prairies, and by the lakeshores of this vast continent. Most assuredly their names are emblazoned on the martyr-roll of heaven. It matters little if ungrateful me

induced to volunteer, the safety and prosperity of Canada would be secured. This gentleman had himself frequently escaped the fury of the savages miraculously. On one occasion, he was seized by a party of Iroquois, who were in the act of choking him to death, but having by a violent effort disengaged himself momentarily from their grasp, he blew out the brains of the chief with a pistol he fortunately had in his possession. The sight of their mutilated fallen leader, and the smell of gunpowder, scattered the balance of the red men, and set the Governor free. Shortly after his departure, a band of nearly two hundred Iroquois presented themselves before the little fort of Ville-Marie, in order to lay siege to it. They knew beforehand that French arms and gunpowder were rather formidable opponents, especially if they should happen to meet another de Maisonneuve, and, as usua

as reserved by the savages to die last, that they might torture him at their ease, yet while he was able to speak, he never ceased exhorting his men to die like Christians. The constancy of the devoted band astonished the Iroquois, who could not refrain from expressing their admiration of the white man's constancy. The death of such heroic Christians is as much to be admired as that of the early martyrs, because like them they combatted and suffered for religion and the glory of God. Sister Bourgeois relates that during the first eight or nine years of the existence of the colony, they could not succeed in raising healthy children, all of them dying at a very tender age, as much on account of the rigorous climate, as of the privations and sufferings which were endured by their mothers, who, being all natives of sunny France, had enjoyed, at least in a moderate way, the good things of this life. In Canada, during these early days, they lacked nearly everything, except good will and an undying love of the Catholic Faith, bequeathed to the

eared, and endeavored with violence to snatch away the terrified infant. But she was disappointed; the child clung convulsively to her French mother, as she called her, and the savage departed, vowing to seize her another time, and then take revenge for the child's preference. In order to prevent a catastrophe, the Sisters hid the child, and the Iroquois eventually gave up the search. This little Indian was baptized and named Mary when she attained her fourth year, M. de Maisonneuve and Mlle. Closse being her sponsors. She was the first Iroquois baptized in the colony, and died two years after. I also raised a little Algonquin girl, and an infant Illinois, but both died at the age of nine. We received at

ving waters of Baptism. The graceless son, however, soon forgot his baptismal vows, and returned to his former licentious mode of life. Falling in with a depraved party of his tribe, who had taken the war-path against the peaceful Christian Indians, he assisted in a murderous attack on his native village. The fiends were unhappily successful in their carnival of blood, and each reeking warrior selected his wretched victim among the few survivors to lead him off to a distant encampment and there torture him slowly to death. Young Gannensagouach dragged his captive through forest and swamp with brutal violence; but at last growing tired of list

so die the dea

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services were held in the spring of 1879 in the city of Montreal, in unison with the canonical proceedings. The canonization of this saintly woman will give to the church in America, a second ackno

he title of Chapter IX

THE CONGREGATI

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ters have been res