In the late 1640s, Father Antoine Gendret, Marguerite's spiritual director, shared with her his dream for a new community. He underlined that only two of the three states of life for women left by Jesus after his resurrection were being fulfilled; namely, that of Martha and Magdalene. But, he added, "the state of life of the journeying Virgin Mary, which must also be honored, was not yet filled."13 In Gendret's dream, such persons would be considered true religious while remaining outside of a cloister--"religious without veil or wimple"14 is the way he put it. Marguerite, who was already carrying out her work as a member of the Extern Congregation in imitation of the state of the Blessed Virgin, found Gendret's proposal very attractive, for she notes, "I had compassion on the young women who for lack of money could not enter the service of God."15 Two women joined her to found this community. One died; the other left. The project failed.16
In 1653, when Marguerite left for Canada, Gendret suggested to her that what God had not willed in Troyes, perhaps [God] would bring to pass in Montreal.17 Five years after her arrival in Ville Marie, in 1658, Marguerite must have recalled these words as the first women joined her from Troyes, accepting to live with her in community as had been planned there.18
2. The "Ville Marie" Project
Marguerite, in her Writings, states clearly that the purpose of her Congregation is "to honour the third state of women which Our Lord Jesus Christ left on earth after his resurrection."19 This serves as a reminder that her experience of imitating Mary as she served the poor in Troyes as a member of the Extern Congregation and the initial inspiration of Father Gendret, her spiritual director in Troyes, remained fresh in her mind and heart. Marguerite reinforced the stated purpose of her Congregation by noting that "the life led by the Blessed Virgin throughout her time on earth ought to have its imitators."20
Towards the end of her life, with years of missionary travel behind her, as well as interaction with her companions, the colonists, civil and church authority, Marguerite emphasized that the Congregation's purpose was to honor "the state of life of the journeying Virgin Mary (her vie voyagere)."21 What connection is there then, between the Marian spirituality of the Congregation rooted in the Visitation, and the imitation of the state of Mary's journeying life, in particular, Mary's life after the resurrection?
In her writings, Marguerite presents the accepted theological interpretation of the Visitation, namely, that John, through Mary's visit to his mother Elizabeth, was freed from original sin in her womb. The Blessed Virgin, she says, in visiting Elizabeth "contributed to the sanctification of St. John the Baptist and to the sanctification of his family."22
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