A Recapitulation of the Principal Events of the Life of Sister Bourgeois : Part 1

Life of Venerable Sister Margaret Bourgeois
by Anonymous

(Page 13 of 15)

On reading this life, one cannot help being struck with wonder and admiration, at the great work Sister Bourgeois undertook and accomplished. 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 Mary, there to teach religion and morality to persons of her own sex. What seemingly insurmountable obstacles presented themselves to her view. She must undertake a voyage of many thousand leagues, must traverse immense and unknown seas, must expect to live in the wilds of primeval forests, exposed to the fury of cruel savages, who unceasingly attacked the weak ramparts of Ville-Marie.

And what means did she possess to surmount these difficulties? Had she credit? Had she any available human support? Was she high-born or powerful? Had she wealth at her disposal? To all these questions we must answer, no. Her hopes of success centered only in an unbounded confidence in the providence of God. Young Margaret possessed the strength of soul and resolution necessary for great designs, the noble intrepidity that rises superior to danger, the firmness that obstacles cannot shake, the fertile and ingenious mind always equal to the occasion, and a sublime spirit of piety and devotion that was useful everywhere.

While she felt herself in a manner pushed 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 her a happy omen, as it resembles the stable of Bethlehem.

There she opens school; from thence she daily departs to perform innumerable good works. But the harvest ripens quickly, and the laborers are few. Overflowing with zeal she again traverses the broad sea in search of help, and leads back many generous volunteers. Again she returns to procure letters patent for the consolidation of her establishment. In the court of a king, in the centre of a camp, she solicits the favor and obtains it. On returning to the city of her love, she resolves on securing ecclesiastical approbation for the rules of her institute, and for this purpose travels on foot through blinding snowstorms. A hundred times would she have crossed the continent rather than fail to accomplish the will of God, and her courageous zeal was eventually blessed by heaven, a crowd of devoted young girls ranging themselves under her standard.

The capital and provinces were alike eager to obtain a foundation of her Sisters, and in a few years all Canada experienced the happy effects of her institute, which for nearly two centuries has not ceased to spread about the odor of sanctity and the knowledge of our holy religion. Being at all times desirous to do good, she established temporarily a House of Providence, for virtuous poor girls, where they might be saved from the snares of a treacherous world. Placing her confidence in God more than in man, she undertook to build a plain, substantial house, to serve the triple purpose of convent, boarding and day-school, and though at the start she had neither money nor credit, the building was completed. At another time she was inspired to build a church, and the church was built. Travelling in Paris she was reduced to extreme poverty, and heaven sent a man from the depth of a Canadian forest to pay her an almost forgotten debt. An establishment of her daughters was demanded for Quebec, and she permitted them to go and live; in a stable pro tem., until better accommodations were offered. The intended property at Quebec having been unjustly contested, 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 foundation she carried the furniture on her own shoulders, saying with Solomon: "I do not ask for the community either wealth, honors, or the pleasures of this life." Of her holy resignation also we have many striking instances. When all was ready to build the church of Bon Secours, knowing that nothing could be more useful to the young colony than such a work, and that unnecessary delays would ruin the material, yet when ecclesiastical superiors forbade her to continue, she instantly obeyed, without murmur or reply. The Bishop refusing for many years to approve her rule, which was nevertheless an epitome of divine wisdom, she ceased importuning, and silently awaited the time appointed by Divine Providence. In one short hour she lost by fire her convent, and everything it contained, the bodies of two dear Sisters being consumed in the flames. Yet her resignation triumphed over fire and death. For several years she experienced the most frightful interior desolation, neither prayers, reflections, communions, nor spiritual advice affording her the least relief. Yet in silent submission she drank the chalice to the dregs, without one atom of human consolation.

What afflicted her most daring this ordeal was not the fear of hell, to which she believed herself condemned; no, it was lest she should be reduced to the horrible alternative of hating God, whom she wished to love in time, if she could not in eternity. Humility was another of her characteristic virtues, for, after she had solidly established her institute, and formed the Sisters in her spirit, her chief desire was to be exempted from all honorable functions in the community, to become the last and least in the holy obedience. They complied reluctantly with her desires in such matters during the remaining years of her saintly life, but all respected her, and remembered with gratitude how much they owed her. She herself recalled only her sins and infidelities. Such shining virtues were the result of her extraordinary devotion to the Mother of God, to whose service she had consecrated herself from childhood, and to whose glorified earthly actions she had united her own. Believing that Magdalen and Martha were the great models of religious life, she regarded Mary Immaculate as their Mistress, and loved to represent her instructing young virgins, and assisting to form the Church of Jesus Christ.

Foundress of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame.