January 12 | Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories, because today, we are talking about a survivor. We are talking about an adventurer. It's the mid-1600s. You are standing in a place called Ville-Marie. You might know it today by a different name, Montreal, Canada. But back then, it wasn't a bustling city with skyscrapers and coffee shops.

It was the wilds of Canada. It was a rugged, dangerous frontier. The winters were brutal, and few children lived to adulthood in this harsh environment. It was a place where you needed grit, determination, and a whole lot of faith just to make it through the night. So, who steps into this frozen, wild landscape to change everything? A woman named Marguerite Bourgeois. But let's rewind a bit. Before she was braving the Canadian snow, Marguerite was a young girl growing up in Champagne, France.

She was born in 1620, the seventh of thirteen children. While she was still young, her mother passed away, but it was after this loss, on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, that something shifted inside her. Marguerite was walking past the portal of the Notre Dame church. She looked up and noticed a statue above the door. She later said, When I looked up and saw it, I thought it was very beautiful.

And at the same time, I found myself so touched and so changed that I no longer knew myself. People actually noticed the difference when she got home. It was like a light had been switched on. She knew right then and there that she was called to give her life to God.

Usually, in these stories, the saint applies to a religious order, gets in, and lives happily ever after, right? Not Marguerite. She applied to the Carmelites. They said no. She applied to the Poor Clares. They said no. It would have been so easy for her to give up, to think she had misunderstood her feelings. But Marguerite didn't quit.

Eventually, a different door opened. She was asked to move all the way across the ocean to Canada to start a school. She accepted the mission. She left civilized France for Ville-Marie. When she arrived, she didn't have a fancy schoolhouse. She didn't have modern supplies. She had to wait until there were even enough children who had survived the harsh conditions to fill a class. And when she finally began her mission, She taught in a stable. That's right. Just like the nativity. A stable.

Marguerite was tough. She realized she couldn't do it alone, so she traveled all the way back to France just to find more volunteers to help her. She wasn't just a teacher. She was a recruiter and a leader. This small group of women she gathered became the Congregation of Notre-Dame de Montréal. And they were revolutionaries. At that time, most nuns were cloistered, meaning they stayed inside the convent walls all the time. But Marguerite fought for her community to be an active order, a rarity at the time.

Marguerite Bourgeois lived to be 69 years old, which was quite a feat in those days, dying on January 12, 1700. Today, she is known by the incredible title, Mother of the Colony. But she also has another title. Because she worked in a stable, traveled with very little, and served those who had nothing, Saint Marguerite Bourgeois is the patron saint of poverty. She is often depicted in art wearing a dark religious habit and a bonnet holding a cross.

She was canonized, declared a saint, by Pope John Paul II in 1982. If Marguerite had waited for a nice brick schoolhouse, she never would have started. She took what she had, a stable, and she went to work. Look at your own life. Is there something you've been putting off because the conditions aren't perfect? Do it anyway. Take the first step, no matter how messy or imperfect it looks.

Just like St. Marguerite Bourgeois, you might find that great things can grow from humble beginnings. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.