Growing up in Troyes, France, Marguerite formed a special relationship with Our Lady. She was turned away by two religious communities, but met the founder of Montreal, Canada, when he returned to France to visit his sister. He invited Marguerite to open a school in the New World; she went, despite misgivings, after praying to Mary. From that first school in an abandoned stable, her ministry grew to include teaching women crafts and founding the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. She managed to keep her sisters uncloistered, despite opposition from the bishop, and served as superior for many years. When Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1982, she became Canada’s first woman saint.
