Saint Marguerite d’Youville (1701-1771)

Saint Marguerite d'Youville was born in rural Quebec in 1701 into serious poverty, and dropped out of school to help her widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters. She married unhappily when she was 21, and when her husband died she brought up her two sons alone by running a little store. By the time her sons were grown, she'd developed such a reputation for helping out the poor whenever and wherever she could that she and three young friends joined together to start a group called the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, now better known as the Grey Nuns. Among other great accomplishments, Saint Marguerite and the Sisters of Charity started the first home for abandoned children in North America. (Taken from "Saints Passionate and Peculiar.")