Ville-Marie, Maisonneuve and Marguerite

Official seal of the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal, Montréal, New France, Circa 1650, Marie-Claire Daveluy, La Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal, 1639-1663. Montréal-Paris, Fides, 1965

Montréal was at first called Ville-Marie, in tribute to the Virgin, and was originally intended as a mission. In 1639, Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière, Pierre Chevrier, Baron de Fancamp, Gaston de Renty and Jean-Jacques Olier, of France, formed the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal. They acquired the Seigniory of Montréal, where they wanted to establish a new society of French and First Nations people, on the model of the early Christian church. Marguerite must certainly have felt an affinity with their goals.

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Ozias Leduc, 1908, CND collection / Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve (1612–1676) was sent out by the Société de Notre-Dame to found Montréal along with Jeanne-Mance (1606–1673). He and Marguerite eventually became close friends, giving each other invaluable support during the colony’s difficult early decades. Right from their first meeting in Troyes, Maisonneuve was impressed by Marguerite’s achievements and ambitions. He said this of the pioneering woman and her commitment to her community: “This is a young woman of good sense and good disposition who lived to her eighteenth or twentieth year without any wish to join the Congregation of Troyes, despite all invitations, for fear of being looked on as bigoted. At length, however, filled by God with a fervent curiosity about their work, she was so impressed by the real goodness they showed, that she joined them, and with such zeal that by rapid advances she was soon raised to the prefecture, where she remained for twelve or fifteen years on account of the great progress made under her leadership, though no one else has ever held the office so long.” As recounted by Dollier de Casson, a contemporary of Jeanne Mance and Marguerite Bourgeoys, in his History of Montreal.