Marie Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais was born in Quebec province and married a scoundrel who illegally traded liquor for furs with the Indians. He died in 1730, leaving her in debt with two young sons (four other children had died).
After securing their future by running a general store, she began to nurse poor women in her home. This led to her administering Montreal’s only hospital and founding the Sisters of Charity of Montreal. During the French and Indian Wars, her Grey Nuns nursed everyone, earning much respect. Canada’s first native saint, Marguerite was canonized in 1990; both her sons became priests. And, at her 1959 beatification, Pope John XXIII called her “the mother of universal charity.”
