Today's Schedule - Thursday January 12, 2012

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys
Today the Church in Canada celebrates the memorial of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, renowned for her work, her spirituality and her impact on society and the Church in North America.
Marguerite Bourgeoys was born in Troyes, France in 1620. As one of the older girls of a Christian, middle-class family, Marguerite had to assume the responsibility for the household when her mother died.
At the age of twenty, she had a conversion experience during a religious procession that profoundly influenced her future mission and focused her values. She felt singled out by the Blessed Virgin.
In response, she joined a local group of women who gathered to do charitable work as an extension of a cloister in Troyes.
Marguerite's apostolic spirituality was a special gift to the Church. She was a woman of action inserted into her time as is attested to by the mark she left on the history of Montreal and education in Canada. She was a woman of faith, deeply committed to the service of the Gospels.

In 1982 Pope John Paul II canonized her and she became the first woman saint in Canada.