Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum

The Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum is at 400 Rue Saint-Paul Est in Old Montreal, Quebec, beside the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel. It is dedicated to Marguerite Bourgeoys, who arrived in Montreal from France in 1653, opened the colony's first school in 1658, and founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, a community of uncloistered teaching sisters. She was canonised in 1982, and the museum and chapel form a site that tells her story and that of the early colony. The chapel was founded by Bourgeoys in 1655, rebuilt after a fire in 1754, and has long been associated with sailors, who prayed there before and after voyages. The museum is housed in a building next to the chapel and presents her life through objects, documents, a reconstruction of a stable-school, and a diorama of early Montreal. The archaeological crypt beneath the chapel exposes remains of earlier structures and the layers of the site back to Indigenous presence, while a tower viewing platform above the chapel offers views of the Old Port and the rooftops of Old Montreal. The curatorial approach is chronological and biographical, tying her life to the settlement of New France and the role of women in the colony. The chapel and museum have been renovated in stages, with the crypt and exhibition spaces redesigned while the chapel's 18th-century fabric is preserved. A visit typically takes about 60 to 90 minutes, and the site is a short walk from Place Jacques-Cartier and Bonsecours Market.