If reading the lives of such women as Mrs. Seton--a Protestant American lady, who after her conversion to the Catholic Church in Italy so burned with the love of God, as to return to her native land in her early widowhood to form a flourishing religious sisterhood in New York; of Nano Nagle, an Irish aristocrat, who turned from a useless fashionable life to the lowly spirit of the gospel on seeing the poor artizans of Paris crowding to early Mass in the Church of Notre Dame before beginning their daily toil, while she lolled weariedly in her carriage after a midnight ball; heroically putting her hand to the plough, she never turned back, and left behind her another religious Sisterhood in Ireland to perpetuate her philanthropic sanctity: of Catharine McAuley, who receiving from her adopted Protestant parents a princely fortune, expended every shilling of it in building up the Order of Mercy, one of the latest and most flourishing outposts of the Church of God; of St. Jane de Chantal, who after having been tried in the fire of affliction for years--founded in her advanced widowhood the Order of the Visitation, under the direction of St. Francis de Sales--and who attained such an extraordinary degree of perfection as to be seen ascending to heaven like a luminous meteor after her happy death. If the perusal of the lives of these, and a host of other sainted women, such as the Catholic Church alone can produce, has filled many a young heart with high and holy aspirations--perhaps the contents of this little volume will not be less efficacious for the glory of God, the interests of religion, and the salvation of souls. A literal translation has been adhered to as far as possible--one or two remarks at the close being the only additions. So if any defects exist in the work they belong solely to the translator, whose aim has not been rhetorical composition, but the greater glory of God. And if but one heart be won more closely to the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ by its perusal, she will be amply repaid, and prays that the blessing of the Sacred Heart of Jesus may be given to her humble effort to advance His honor and glory. Respectfully, THE AUTHORESS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF CANADA AND COLONIZATION OF MONTREAL. CHAPTER II. MESSRS. DAUVERSIERE AND DE MAISONNEUVE VISIT MONTREAL CHAPTER III. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HOTEL DIEU--ECCLESIASTICAL APPOINTMENTS FOR CANADA, ETC. CHAPTER IV. EARLY YEARS OF MARGARET BOURGEOIS AND HER VOCATION FOR THE CANADIAN MISSION CHAPTER V. MARGARET BOURGEOIS, AFTER MANY TRIALS AND MORTIFICATIONS, AT LENGTH SAILS WITH M. DE MAISONNEUVE FOR CANADA CHAPTER VI. SISTER BOURGEOIS'S ARRIVAL IN CANADA CHAPTER VII. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SISTERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF NOTRE DAME AT VILLE-MARIE CHAPTER VIII. M. FRANCOIS DE LAVAL DE MONTMORENCI IS APPOINTED FIRST BISHOP OF CANADA--SISTER BOURGEOIS SUCCEEDS IN BUILDING THE CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME CHAPTER IX.