GIFFARD, MARIE-FRANÇOISE, dite Marie de Saint-Ignace, Hospitaller of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec, first nun of Canadian birth; b. 1634, daughter of Robert Giffard and Marie Regnouard; d. 1657.
In 1634 Giffard, having been granted a seigneury, returned to New France with his wife and his two children. On 11 June, a week after their arrival at Quebec, Françoise was born; she was baptized by Father Charles Lalemant. In the autumn of 1646 she took her vows at the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec. She received the name of the mother superior and foundress, who had died 5 November.
Marie-Françoise Giffard’s niece, Mother Juchereau* de Saint-Ignace, has traced a portrait of her that seems authentic: “She was very intelligent, endowed with great gentleness and a prudence beyond her age. Her innocence and purity were angelic; she had a sincere and deep humility, an ardent charity and an unfailing readiness to endure all in God’s name.” Mother Giffard de Saint-Ignace died 15 March 1657 at Quebec, after terrible suffering. She was buried under the chancel in the Hôtel-Dieu chapel. Her contemporaries admired her saintly qualities.
JR (Thwaites). Juchereau, Annales (Jamet). BRH, VII (1901), 86–89.
Marie-Jean-d’Ars Charette, C.S.C., “GIFFARD, MARIE-FRANÇOISE, dite Marie de Saint-Ignace,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 11, 2024, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/giffard_marie_francoise_1E.html.
Permalink: | https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/giffard_marie_francoise_1E.html |
Author of Article: | Marie-Jean-d’Ars Charette, C.S.C. |
Title of Article: | GIFFARD, MARIE-FRANÇOISE, dite Marie de Saint-Ignace |
Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1 |
Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
Year of publication: | 1966 |
Year of revision: | 1979 |
Access Date: | October 11, 2024 |