Mission: Growing, Balancing and Transforming ourselves and our world.
MARGUERITE CENTRE, a mission of the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, has been named after the foundress of the Grey Sisters, Marguerite d'Youville, canonized by the Church in Rome, December 9, 1990.
After her example of expressing God's love in service to others, the staff of the Marguerite Centre seek to provide:
- contemplative space for persons who desire spiritual and personal growth, through on-ongoing spiritual direction, retreats, community gatherings and educational programs;
- workshops to challenge and influence the spirituality of our culture and promote social change;
- hospitality to those in need of healing and renewal;
- collaboration with persons who promote peace, justice and care for the environment.
History of the Centre (1989-)
Marguerite Centre began its ministry in 1989. The work of Berenice McCoy, gsic, was one of the crucial seeds for this initiative. Sister Berenice had been coordinating the Retreat Program for her Grey Sister Community since 1979. She was also a member of the team that was facilitating the Diocesan Lay Ministry Program for the Pembroke Diocese. These two ministries were the beginning of what she continues to do at the Centre today.
Fay Edmonds, gsic, spearheaded the initiative to develop the Marguerite Centre, and with the help of some talented staff members, the vision for the present facility came into being in 1990. Sister Helen Dunnigan, gsic, was the Director of the Centre from 1990-1997 and together with Sister Berenice, developed its character as a contemplative and hospitable space.'
In the summer of 2006, Marguerite Centre became the main work of the building of the Motherhouse. Many of the spaces of the building have been preserved; others have been enhanced to serve the needs of the Centre's growing and diverse community.
St. Marguerite d'Youville and The Grey Sisters
 The Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are members of a community that was founded 200 years ago in Montreal by a widow named Marie-Marguerite Lajemmerais d’Youville.
During the loneliness and suffering of a bitterly unhappy marriage Marguerite had experienced the power of the Father’s love for her. After she had struggled to repay her dead husband’s multitude of debts, she opened her home and her heart to needy persons whom she found in Montreal. She was joined by three companions who, with her, dedicated their lives to revealing the Father’s love to the poor of their time.
They were asked to take over the management of the General Hospital of Montreal, a crumbling financial ruin. Through unmitigating hard work they made a viable home for the needy and sick of Montreal.
From this simple beginning, six Grey Nun/Sister congregations grew, the last being established in Pembroke, Ontario, in 1926, The Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
The Grey Sisters of Pembroke have followed their charism of service to missions in China, the Dominican Republic, to the Bahamas as well as to various provinces in Canada where they have served in education, hospitals, homes for the elderly, and pastoral visiting of the sick.
Pope John XXIII, who beatified St. Marguerite in 1959, called her the "Mother of Universal Charity." She was canonized in 1990.
The foundress of the Grey Sisters was a woman of vision and practical compassion. For years, she has inspired the various Grey Sister communities in their various ministries in the areas of Education, Health Care, Social Justice, Parish Ministry. Last but not least, Marguerite's example is still alive in new and surprising ways today at the Centre, as we seek to show through our hospitality and work of community building "a trust in the Father's love and ... a spirit of simplicity ".
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