(1620-1700) Foundress of the Congregation of Notre Dame de Montreal, born Troyes, France; died Montreal, Canada. A member in Troyes of the lay confraternity attached to the Congregation de Notre Dame, founded in Lorraine by Saint Peter Fourier, 1598, she volunteered to go to Canada in 1653 with Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the governor of Montreal, and opened a free school there in 1657. Later she returned to France for helpers, and in 1676 established the Congregation of Notre Dame de Montreal, whose rules were formally drawn up and approved in 1698. She was declared venerable in 1878, beatified in 1950, and canonized in 1982. See also, patron saints index.