Saint Who?
Saints Who Grew Up in Poverty
Saint Marguerite d’Youville
Foundress († 1771)Feast: October 16
“My poverty is extreme, Lord. I do not have goods of this world, but I will give myself; my time, my work. I will sow little, it is true, but your mercy will make me reap infinitely.” Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais was born in Québec, the eldest of six children. Her father died when she was seven, leaving the family very poor. The generosity of her great-grandfather allowed Marguerite to spend a few years at a convent school. Then she returned home to help her mother and teach her younger siblings.
At twenty, Marguerite married François d’Youville, and the couple moved in with his mother. François drank, bootlegged, and was often away from home. He died in 1730, leaving twenty-eight-year-old Marguerite to educate her two surviving sons, who later became priests. (Four other children had died in infancy.)
Marguerite’s suffering increased her compassion. Her courage, as a biographer notes, “laid the foundation for service to the poor of a thousand faces.” She took a blind woman into her home, and was committed to providing for the needy. Some laughed at her unconventional behavior. But others were attracted by her good work, joining her to form what would become the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, known as the Grey Nuns. She was canonized in 1990.
Merciful Father, like Saint Marguerite d’Youville,
may I give of my time, my work, and myself,
and be a light of consolation for the poor and lonely.
