Françoise Simard

Mother Marie du Bon Conseil (born Françoise Simard; 18 January 1851 — 11 May 1937) was a Catholic nun and founder of the Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil de Chicoutimi ().

Biography

Early life

Françoise Simard was born on 18 January 1851 to Hyppolite Simard, a farmer, and Dosithèe Simard, in the village of La Baie in Saguenay, Province of Canada. She attended a local parish school, however struggled to take exams because of poor health as a child.

Sisterhood

In 1874, Simard left her parish and joined the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( Sisters of the Good Shepherd). At the Congregation, she was initiated into the order and completed her education. After a period of convalescence, she entered the Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal ( Grey Nuns) in 1877, which she would eventually have to abandon due to health reasons a year later. After recovery, she started working as a housekeeper for a priest in La Baie, who died in 1888, for which she was left a life annuity. After his death she went to live with her sister and brother-in-law.

In 1892, Simard was hired as a schoolteacher in Saint-Fulgence. At the same time, the Bishop of the Diocese of Chicoutimi was looking to develop the diocese he led, one of the ways he did that was to create a parish school led by a congregation of teaching nuns. He invited Simard as the person to lead the new congregation. Simard agreed and the day after she arrived the Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil de Chicoutimi was established. The Bishop trained the nuns according to the teachings of St. Francis de Sales. Between 1894 and 1899 she would take her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience taking the name of Sister Marie du Bon Conseil.

Motherhood

In 1899, Sister Marie was made Mother Superior and therefore her name became Mother Marie du Bon Conseil. Also in 1899, the Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil de Chicoutimi established its first general council, however, the council didn't last long as the member nuns were appointed to local schools. Mother Marie's role in the congregation was to help establish parish schools in the Diocese and to negotiate the sister's working conditions and salary arraignments.

In 1904, was in Mother Marie's words "Our difficult year", as the community was forced to acknowledge the $17,000 debt the congregation had took on due to the construction of a house and chapel by the Montmagny Boarding School. To PReVENT the spread of news regarding the debt, she gave the buildings to the building contractor and paid the debts. Most of the schools they founded were taken over by the local school board over the following decades.

In 1914, the congregation of 48 held another election to create a general council. Sister Saint-Emmanuel, who had been general assistant for 13 years, threatened to leave the community after she lost the election for general assistant. Mother Marie informed the Bishop who proceeded to annul the election and Sister Saint-Emmanuel returned to her position. In 1918, after 24 years of service as Mother Superior, Mother Marie was forced to step down as Mother Superior because of an update to the canon law instituting term limits. She became superior of the mother house until her death in 1937.

The congregation she helped establish, went on to help establish new congregations of teaching nuns around the world including in Sub-Saharan Africa.