Date of issue: September 21, 1978
Printer: Canadian Bank Note Company
Design: Antoine Dumas
Marguerite d鈥橸ouville
Marguerite d鈥橸ouville was born in 1701 in Varennes, Quebec. In 1722, she married Fran莽ois d鈥橸ouville 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 鈥淕rey Nuns鈥� given by the local population to members of her Order, the French 鈥淪oeurs Grises鈥� being a slang term for drunkenness as well as a reference to the color of their habit.
In 1736, d鈥橸ouville 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 H么pital G茅n茅ral de Montr茅al, where they were responsible for the care of the elderly, the handicapped, orphans, and 鈥渇illes tombees鈥� (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鈥橸ouville 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鈥� refectory during the famine that preceded the fall of Montreal in 1760 and attributed to d鈥橸ouville鈥檚 faith in God. The first-day cover shows the Grey Nuns Mother House as it looked in 1850 - 1885 on Dorchester Boulevard (now Boulevard R茅n茅 Levesque), Montreal.
