By Sister Betty Donohue and Sister Mary Frances Duffy

Who shall find a valiant woman? Far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her …the heart of her husband trusts in her…many daughters will rise up to call her blessed.”

In seeking to discover a character who responds to these words from Sacred Scripture, it is possible to find such a woman in the person of Marie Marguerite duFrost Lejemmaris D’Youville, wife, mother, widow, foundress of the Grey Nuns, and Sisters of Charity.

To read the pages of her biography is to recognize that she was indeed a valiant woman. Similarly, it is to recognize that she became so, from her earliest years, by living in the shadow of the Cross.

Let us trace the lines of that Cross as it impressed itself upon her 70 years of life, leading from tragedy to triumph.

Marguerite knew suffering in all of its guises. Deprivation of every type marked her life from the cradle to the grave. She and her family experienced the loss of wealth and position upon the death of her father; she was subjected to a brief, all-too-quick education; the loss of true love through shame and dishonor; an unhappy marriage; the loss of several young children and her husband in death; and finally her home and her reputation.

As the first Grey Nun, she experienced ridicule and gossip—being considered a woman of ill-repute. She and her first companions in their noble work of service to the poor of Montreal were disdained by all–even family and friends.

Tradition tells us that the name which her Congregation, founded in December 1737, would eventually bear found its origin in the derisive insults chanted by the populace of her city as she moved charitably among them. “Les Soeurs Grises!” (“The tipsy nuns!”) taunted her and echoed through cobble-stoned streets.

In a spirit of humility, Marguerite D’Youville adopted a title of ignominy and elevated that same title, Les Soeurs Grises, the Grey Nuns, to a position of honor. In later years, unto the present, around the world from Japan to Africa, from Alaska to Peru, it is a name that has become synonymous with charity, compassion, care and concern. To give concrete expression to the name which they bore, a habit of French gray material with black accents was, until recent years, the official dress of the Grey Nuns. Madame D”Youville’s life was a continuous “Te Deum” sung in praise of a loving Father-God. Throughout her many trials and tribulations, Marguerite D’Youville never lost her greatest wealth and treasure…intense faith and trust in the Divine Providence of the Eternal Father. Her firm belief that He would lovingly provide for her work sustained her through each and every signing with the cross. And it is this faith-vision which is perhaps her greatest bequest to her daughters. Devotion to Providence, the eternal Father and the Cross of Christ form the nucleus of Grey Nun spirituality.

Being intimately acquainted with all the sorrows a woman’s heart can know, she nevertheless “seemed a shining star whose salutary influence cast its rays over all.”

The life and work of this noble woman of Canada bore the imprint of the Old and New Testaments.

“She opens her hands to the needy and extends her arms to the poor.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers…”

This was and is Marguerite D’Youville. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

It has been stated that “it takes courage to be a Grey Nun for the family to which she belongs was conceived in adversity, born in trials and cradled in suffering.” Yet such a heritage has not stifled the growth of her Congregation.

Marguerite D’Youville continues to live in and through the spirit of her institute. The lived expression of her spirit is both multi-faceted and many-splendored.

Distinction and exclusion were not a part of our foundress’ apostolate. She ministered to all in need, with no regard for her own personal well-being. If a need existed and Madame D’Youville recognized that need, she and her daughters in Christ devoted themselves it.

And so it has been with the passage of time, since that first small foundation in eighteenth century Montreal. Today, throughout the world, Grey Nuns are recognizing a wide variety of apostolic needs. Members of one or another of the six autonomous Congregations of Grey Nuns are engaged in every possible work of charity and service to the People of God. Eight thousand Grey Nuns, united by the spirit of Marguerite D’Youville, strive to minister to the varied and pressing needs of mankind. Likened to the valiant woman of Scripture, Mother D’Youville has been praised by many daughters who have risen up over the past two hundred and thirty-seven years to call her blessed.

On May 3, 1959, the mighty voice of the universal Church united with those of her daughters when through the solemn pronouncement of Pope John XXIII Marguerite D’Youville became Blessed Marie Marguerite and was proclaimed as the “Mother of Universal Charity.”

The mighty tree of the Montreal foundation has branched many times and taken root in new apostolic soils. Grey Nuns continue to perpetuate the universal charity of their Mother to assist in the social services, missionary activities, nursing, orphanages and old age houses, as well as in the teaching apostolate.

And it is the last mentioned of these services which brought the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921, to the “mission” Church of Atlanta in 1937… 200 years after Marguerite D’Youville first gave life to the Congregation.

At the invitation of Archbishop Gerald P. O’Hara, then archbishop of the Savannah-Atlanta diocese, four Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart arrived in Atlanta the summer of 1937.

The sisters taught in the religious education program prior to the opening of the fall school term in order to become better acquainted with the parents and students.

Because the present school site was incomplete, classes were held until late November in the rectory, which had formerly been the headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan.

Enrollment was small in the beginning years, therefore, each sister taught a double grade, first through the eighth. Later, Christ The King High School originated as the result of parental encouragement, and the Cathedral basement rooms were converted into classrooms for ninth through twelfth grades for girls only.

When St. Pius X was established in 1958 as a diocesan coed institution there was no longer a need for Christ the King High School, and the Grey Nuns joined representatives of other religious communities to form the religious faculty at St. Pius.

Growth was rapid due to the population expansion, and in Augusta, 1958, at the invitation of Bishop Francis E. Hyland additional Grey Nuns came to staff Immaculate Heart of Mary School.

In 1962 it became apparent that Christ the King would again have to be subdivided and St. Jude’s was created to serve northwest Atlantans. Our community was asked to assume the educational responsibilities there.

Bishop Hyland was most anxious to have a girls’ private school, and in 1963 D’Youville Academy was established. It grew rapidly and flourished during its brief existence. However, it was forced to close its doors the summer of 1969 because of the lack of religious personnel.

In addition to serving the archdiocese in an educational capacity, we presently have a sister engaged in social services, and Grey Nuns have and continue to serve in areas of religious education and various other apostolic needs.