From Season to Season

François Laval was born in 1623 into one of the most distinguished families in France. He received the tonsure at age twelve (a symbol of his status as a cleric) and, later, he became a canon of the cathedral of Evreux. Following his ordination in 1647, he was named archdeacon of Evreux. At the age of thirty he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of present-day Vietnam, but he was unable to take up residence there because of the wars that plagued the country during that period; he resigned from that office one year later. In 1658, François was appointed Vicar Apostolic of New France. He arrived in Canada in May 1659, and reached Quebec one month later. During the next thirty years of his life he founded parishes, fought against the exploitation of the Native Americans, and opposed the Gallicanism of the civil authorities. He founded the first seminary in New France in 1662 and in 1674 he was appointed as first bishop of Quebec. François died in 1708 at the age of eighty-five. Saint Fr...

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”—Matthew 19:14 Born at Troyes, France, in 1620, Marguerite was twenty years old when she felt the call to consecrate herself to the service of God. Having joined a group of pious women dedicated to good works, she immigrated to the settlement at Montreal, Canada, in 1652, to tutor the children of the French garrison. In 1655, Marguerite rallied the people of Montreal to help her construct a chapel that would serve as a place of prayer and pilgrimage outside of the settlement; the stone chapel of Notre-Dame-de Bon-Secours was finally completed twenty years later. To help the children of the colony, Marguerite opened a school in a converted stable in 1658. Here she began teaching the basics of the faith, as well as the rudimentaries of reading and math; older girls were trained in household skills that would enable them to be successful wives and mothers. He...