Marie-Marguerite d'Youville

Marguerite d'Youville, SGM (October 15, 1701 – December 23, 1771) was a French Canadian widow who founded the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, commonly known as the "Grey Nuns". She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1990, becoming the first native-born Canadian to be declared a saint.

Early life and marriage
She was born Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais in 1701 at Varennes, Quebec, the oldest daughter of Christophe du Frost, Sieur de la Gesmerays (1661–1708) and Marie-Renée Gaultier de Varennes. (According to Quebec naming conventions, she would have always been known as Marguerite, not Marie.) Her father died when she was a young girl. Despite her family's poverty, at age 11 Marguerite was able to attend the Ursuline convent in Quebec City for two years before returning home to teach her younger brothers and sisters.

Marguerite's impending marriage to a scion of Varennes society was foiled by her mother's marriage below her class to Timothy Sullivan, an Irish doctor who was considered by the French Canadians to be a disreputable foreigner.

On August 12, 1722, at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Marguerite married François d'Youville, a bootlegger who sold liquor illegally to Indigenous peoples in exchange for furs. He frequently left home for long periods for parts unknown. The couple had six children together before François died in 1730.

By age 30, D'Youville had suffered the loss of her father, husband and four of her six children, who died in infancy. But she underwent a religious renewal during her marriage. "In all these sufferings Marguerite grew in her belief of God's presence in her life and His tender love for every human person. She, in turn, wanted to make known His compassionate love to all. She undertook many charitable works with complete trust in God, whom she loved as a Father."

Grey Nuns of Montreal
Marguerite and three other women founded in 1737 a religious association to provide a home for the poor in Montreal. At first, the home housed only four or five members, but it grew as the women raised funds. As their actions went against the social conventions of the day, d'Youville and her colleagues were mocked by their friends and relatives, and even by the poor they helped. Some called them "les grises", which can mean "the grey women" but which also means "the drunken women", in reference to d'Youville's late husband's career as a bootlegger.

By 1744, the association had become a religious congregation with a rule and a formal community. In 1747, the women were granted a charter to operate the General Hospital of Montreal, which by that time was in ruins and deeply in debt. D'Youville and her fellow workers re-established the financial security of the hospital. Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in 1765. The congregation rebuilt the hospital soon after. As the congregation expanded to other cities, it became known simply as the "Grey Nuns".

Slave owner
D'Youville has been described as "one of Montreal's more prominent slaveholders".

D'Youville and the Grey Nuns used enslaved laborers in their hospital. They also purchased and sold both Indian slaves and British war prisoners, including an English slave whom she purchased from the Indians. The vast majority of the 'slaves' in the hospital were English soldiers and would be better described as prisoners of war. As described in The Captors' Narrative: Catholic Women and Their Puritan Men on the Early American Frontier, "These 21 men were not captive freeholders, resentful of their captors' religion and longing to reestablish themselves at home. They were for the most part young soldiers, many of them conscripts, simply wishing to survive their captivity. However strange they may have found the community that held them and the woman who supervised them, they were probably relieved to find themselves in a situation that offered a strong possibility of survival. They knew their fellow soldiers to be dying in nearby prisons -- places notorious for their exposure to the heat and cold and unchecked pestilence. As hard as they must have worked at Pointe-Saint-Charles, the men could easily have regarded their captivity at least as a partial blessing."

Veneration
Marguerite d'Youville died in 1771 at the General Hospital. In the next century, her status continued to increase, as people cited prayers for her intervention in aiding them. After her spiritual writings were approved by theologians on 1 February 1888, her beatfication process was formally opened on 28 April 1890, and she was granted the title Servant of God. She was declared Venerable by Pope Pius XI on 16 June 1931. In 1959, she was beatified by Pope John XXIII, who called her "Mother of universal charity".

She was canonized in 1990 by Pope John Paul II. She is the first native-born Canadian to be elevated to sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. Her feast day is October 16.

In 1961, a shrine was built in her birthplace of Varennes. Today, it is the site of a permanent exhibit about the life and works of Sister Marguerite.

The review process for canonization included review of a medically inexplicable cure of acute myeloid leukemia in a patient after relapse, after prayers to Sister Marguerite. The woman in the case is the only known long-term survivor of this disease in the world, having lived more than 40 years from a condition that typically kills people in 18 months.

Numerous Roman Catholic churches, schools, women's shelters, charity shops, and other institutions in Canada and worldwide are named after St. Marguerite d'Youville. Most notably, the Catholic institution of higher learning, D'Youville University in Buffalo, New York, is named after her.

The D'Youville Academy at Plattsburgh, New York was founded in 1860. It was listed on the US National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Lady Jetté, wife of Sir Louis-Amable Jetté, at one time Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, wrote a biography of Marie-Marguerite d'Youville.

Final resting place
In 2010, Marie-Marguerite d'Youville's remains were removed from Grey Nuns Motherhouse and relocated to her birthplace of Varennes.

Recognition
On September 21, 1978, Canada Post issued Marguerite d'Youville-stamps, based on a design by Antoine Dumas. The 14¢ stamps are perforated 13.5 and were printed by Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd.