The Congrégation de Notre Dame (CND) is a religious community for women founded in 1658 in Ville Marie (Montreal), in the colony of New France, now part of Canada. It was established by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who was recruited in France to create a religious community in Ville Marie. She developed a congregation for women that was not cloistered; the sisters were allowed to live and work outside the convent.[1] The congregation held an important role in the development of New France, as it supported women and girls in the colony and offered roles for them outside the home.
It also founded a boarding school for girls' education, and watched over the filles du roi, women immigrants whose passage to the colony was paid by the Crown, which wished to encourage marriages and the development of families in the colony. Some filles de roi and sisters served as missionaries to the First Nations peoples.[2] The community's motherhouse has been based in Montreal for more than 350 years. Marguerite Bourgeoys was canonized in 1982 by the Catholic Church and is Canada's first woman saint.
- ^ Simpson 2005, p. 5.
- ^ Dumont, Micheline (2004). "Congrégation de Notre-Dame," in The Oxford Companion to Canadian History, ed. Gerald Hallowell. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford Reference Online.