The Life of Venerable Sister Margaret BourgeoisAnonymous
History
The Life of Venerable Sister Margaret Bourgeois
Anonymous
Bourgeoys, Marguerite, Saint, 1620-1700
The Lord gives a cross to every one of us. He spares none of His
servants, and she had crosses of all sorts to endure, interiorly and
exteriorly suffering the most intense pain of body and mind. The former
she often inflicted on herself, the latter was appointed by Divine
Providence, and of each she had a larger share than falls to the common
lot. Without referring again to the long and painful voyages she
undertook for the glory of God, or to the penitential and mortified life
of which she made profession, it is well known that, like the Apostle,
she constantly endured in soul and body the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
Her food was always of the coarsest kind, and she selected invariably
for herself whatever was disagreeable to the taste. In the matter of
_eating_ she absolutely destroyed sensuality, either by using her food
too hot or too cold, or spoiling its flavor by pouring water on it, or
mixing it with ashes, or a certain bitter powder, with which she always
kept herself supplied. She ate little, and drank less, using water but
once a day, and never in sufficient quantity to allay her thirst, even
in the hottest weather. She even managed to sit at her meals in a
painful and mortified position, being careful to pass every moment of
her life in the practice of mortification. She usually prayed prostrate
on the ground. Her ordinary bed was the floor, with a block of wood for
her pillow. She regarded it as a criminal indulgence, if sickness
obliged her to use a mattrass or _straw_ pillow. Her sleep was short and
broken, as she rose usually about midnight to pray for at least two
hours, and during the intense cold of the most severe Canadian winters
she never omitted this practice. She seemed to be _insensible_ to the
biting frost, as she never approached the fire in the cold season, and
endured the inconveniences of the other seasons with the same
indifference to bodily comfort. She scourged her body with rude
disciplines, and one cannot describe without a sensation of horror, the
cap, bristling with sharp points, that she wore secretly on, her head
night and day. The Sisters once accidentally saw this instrument of
torture, and begged her to discontinue its use, but she smilingly told
them, it caused her no more pain than a feather pillow should.
On another occasion, having been implored by the Sisters to moderate the
rigor of her austerities, in order to prolong her life for the sake of
the community, she answered them by an instruction on the Christian's
obligation of leading an austere and penitential life, and so pathetic
were her words that the Sisters burned with a desire to imitate her
example.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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