Congregation of Notre Dame

The Congrégation de Notre Dame is a religious community for women founded in the colony of New France, now part of Canada, in 1658. It was established by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who created a religious community for women where the sisters were not confined to a convent but were allowed to live among and help the less fortunate. The Congregation held an important role in the development of New France, as it offered education to girls in their boarding school, watched over newly arrived women, to the colony and served as missionaries to the Aboriginal people. The community's motherhouse has been based in Montreal for over 350 years. Marguerite Bourgeoys was canonized in 1982 by the Roman Catholic Church as Canada's first woman saint.

The Congrégation Notre-Dame was a previously well funded women’s religious order created in France by Pierre Fourier and Alix Le Clerc; it was committed to education through the organization of the Catholic Church. Bourgeoys joined the externe Congregation following a great spiritual experience in 1640 and a long search for a place within the more conventional contemplative women’s religious communities. As Bourgeoys helped in the Congregation of Notre Dame, she had a vision of a new kind of religious community for women. This new order took Mary, the mother of Jesus, as their role model, considering her to be an actor in the Bible together with Jesus and his apostles. Bourgeoys wanted the women of her new order to be active and among those who needed their help, and not cloistered in a convent waiting for the needy to come to them.

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