CHAPTER IV
EARLY YEARS OF MARGARET BOURGEOIS, AND HER VOCATION FOR THE CANADIAN MISSION
Margaret Bourgeois was born in the city of Troyes, in Champagne, on the 15th of April, 1620. Her father, Abraham Bourgeois, was an honest merchant of that city, who espoused Guillamette Garnier. If these good people were not distinguished for high birth or the possession of great wealth, they were at least remarkable for the purity of their lives, for sound religious principles, and for unusual probity of character. As they belonged to the middle class of society, their means were limited, yet they took care to have their children educated, and instilled into their young minds a cordial love for the duties of religion. Their family consisted of five children, two boys and three girls, Margaret being the third born to them. She was baptized in the parish church of St. John of Troyes, and nothing is known of her infancy or childhood except that at a proper age she learned to read and write, with the other attainments of early school years. Of this we are certain, that, at an early period, she became a practical Christian, and never deviated from the principles she then imbibed. Almighty God had special designs on her future life, and from childhood infused into her heart a great love of labor and mortification, which foreshadowed what she was one day to become. Scarcely had she attained her tenth year when she was to be seen among her little companions, like a mother in Israel, assembling them together in secluded places, far from the noise and bustle of the city, instructing them in the discharge of their duties, principally in practices of piety, advising them to love labor and shun idleness, the fruitful source of the sins of youth, and to select such work as Almighty God had given them particular inclinations for.
These assemblies of children were so many little communities of innocent souls in which God took great complacency, and it was at this time she made her first Holy Communion. Her mother's death occurring soon after, she had an opportunity of practising the virtues of obedience, etc., under circumstances far in advance of her years. By the death of his wife, M. Bourgeois found himself embarrassed with the care of a helpless young family, but noticing in little Margaret a certain air of gravity and prudence, accompanied by sincere piety, he seriously thought of giving her charge of the household, and particularly of the education of a younger brother and sister. Nothing is known with certainty of the after lives of these children, except that, in 1653, when Margaret was making arrangements to leave France for Canada, two of them were minors, in whose favor she voluntarily dispossessed herself of her share of the family inheritance. Neither can anything be recorded of the virtues she displayed in discharging the laborious duties of the position in which her father placed her at so tender an age. No one could speak of these years of responsibility except herself, and humility would never permit her to raise the veil, or speak of what must have been a most interesting portion of her saintly life. Only one circumstance of these early years could she ever be induced to mention, and of this she sometimes spoke with great bitterness of soul, and much exaggeration. It was that, a few times, during seasons of worldly dissipation, she had attached undue importance to dress—taking great pains to arrange her toilette fashionably so as to display her personal attractions to advantage. Although this happened without dressing beyond her station of life, or exceeding the bounds of modesty, she acknowledged that it tarnished the purity of her heart, and filled her mind with vain and foolish thoughts. It was one of those youthful faults for which she took care to punish herself severely in after life, being remarkable for the simplicity and modesty of her attire, even before she became a religeuse. Her beautiful and well-concealed spirit of mortification made her correspond faithfully to the motions of grace which Divine Providence infused into her soul, and by which she was to become so intimately united to God. As He always makes an instrument of His Blessed Mother to bestow such graces on His elect, it was by devotion to Mary that He attached Margaret Bourgeois irrevocably to His service. She had always been a devoted client of the Blessed Virgin, and the singular favor she received, that will now be related, was probably not the first vouchsafed her by the Queen of Heaven. The circumstances under which she received it prove that she was a member of the Rosary Society, which was then effecting such wonders in the spiritual life of Christendom.
On the first Sunday of October, 1640—the Feast of the Holy Rosary—the Dominicans held grand processions in honor of Mary, and celebrated the feast with all possible splendor. Margaret Bourgeois, being then twenty years old, came with many others to assist at the procession, which was to take place within the monastery enclosure. The public were allowed on such occasions to join in the ceremony, but by a particular dispensation of Providence, the crowd was so great this year that the procession was obliged to pass along a public route, and file off before the church of Notre Dame-the cathedral of Troyes. There was a very fine marble statue of the Blessed Virgin placed on a pedestal in the porch of the church, and as Margaret turned reverently to gaze upon it, it shone brilliantly with supernatural light—the face of the Virgin beaming with an extraordinary life-like beauty. She had often seen the statue before, but never as now, and, like St. Paul, was almost blinded by the dazzling vision. To the last day of her life she felt her heart moved to its inmost depths when she recalled this celestial favor.
On entering the church she reflected seriously on what had occurred, and felt convinced that God demanded of her something more than she had yet accomplished for His glory, and that His Blessed Mother was to be hereafter her strength and support. She immediately resolved by the help of God to eradicate from her heart the two imperfections that counteracted the influence of divine grace. These were an inordinate love of dress, and a strong desire to attract to herself the esteem and love of creatures. Accordingly she determined for the future to wear a simple dress of cheap material, to use no color but black or brown, and never again to display the vain ornaments of jewelry that young girls so much prize. In her fervor she made a vow to receive humiliations as coming directly from the hand of God, and we shall see that as SISTER BOURGEOIS she received many such favors.
With these dispositions it was natural she should seek admission into a religious community, which in effect she did. There existed at Troyes a Carmelite Convent, of the reform of St. Teresa. Every one knows that the Carmelites are in a special manner devoted to Mary, under the title of "Our Lady of Mt. Carmel," and that their congregation is the origin and centre of the Confraternities of the Scapular. There is not a community of women in the Church whose discipline and manner of life is so austere, if we except the "Poor Clares." During all seasons of the year they dress in a heavy coarse habit, wear sandals on their feet, never make use of linen, are seldom seen in the parlor, sleep on a hard mattress, rise simultaneously, to chant the Divine Office, spend at least two hours each night at prayer, and are familiar with the use of the discipline, hair-shirt, etc. In a word, their mortifications are continual and rigorous. Now these extraordinary penances were what especially attracted Margaret Bourgeois to join them. But in order to act prudently, and learn the will of God clearly regarding her vocation, she addressed herself to M. Antoine Jandret, a virtuous and enlightened priest, who was confessor to the Carmelites. Having heard her attentively, he was struck with admiration at the manner in which God was working in her soul. She continued for some time to be his penitent, and after he had made trial of her virtue, he no longer hesitated to propose her as a subject to the Carmelites.
The chapter met to discuss the matter, but some changes in her exterior manner of living (the motives of which they did not know) led them to suppose that her disposition was frivolous and volatile; and they refused to admit her. But it was not there Almighty God intended her to become a religieuse, and their refusal did not lessen her esteem for the austerities practised by them, and on which she modelled her own penances for the remainder of her life. Neither did a first refusal discourage her; on the contrary, she redoubled her prayers to learn the will of God, and it pleased His divine Majesty to unfold to the eyes of her soul, gradually but clearly, his designs regarding her. Being rejected by the Carmelites, she next sought admission into the extern congregation of young girls, at Troyes. It will be necessary to give some explanation of this society, as the singular graces accorded to Sister Bourgeois while she was one of its members influenced her very much in the formation of the congregation she afterwards founded.
There existed in Troyes another convent of religieuses known as the "Congregation of Notre