Date of issue: September 21, 1978
Printer: Canadian Bank Note Company
Design: Antoine Dumas
Marguerite d’Youville
Marguerite d’Youville was born in 1701 in Varennes, Quebec. In 1722, she married François d’Youville and began a family, eventually having six children (four dying in infancy). Her husband was believed to have been involved in the illegal liquor trade with the native population. This belief was responsible for the name “Grey Nuns” given by the local population to members of her Order, the French “Soeurs Grises” being a slang term for drunkenness as well as a reference to the color of their habit.
In 1736, d’Youville and three colleagues formed the Sisters of Charity to minister to the needy. At first, they did this in a small house in Old Montreal. In 1747, they moved to the Hôpital Général de Montréal, where they were responsible for the care of the elderly, the handicapped, orphans, and “filles tombees” (women who were pregnant out of wedlock). Their success in this care as well as in the management of the Hospital was such that they expanded to a number of other cities, including Ste-Hyacinthe, Quebec City and Saint-Boniface (Manitoba) in the 1800s. d’Youville died in 1771 in Montreal.
The Stamp
The stamp shows d'Youville praying, with several needy people (one clearly handicapped) to her right. A fellow nun on her left is holding a large ladle in a barrel filled with food. The hands of God are seen above. The scene represents the sudden and unexpected appearance of food in the sisters’ refectory during the famine that preceded the fall of Montreal in 1760 and attributed to d’Youville’s faith in God. The first-day cover shows the Grey Nuns Mother House as it looked in 1850 - 1885 on Dorchester Boulevard (now Boulevard Réné Levesque), Montreal.
