The now Venerable Marie Elisabeth died of tuberculosis at the age of 41, but before her death she had founded a teaching order and extended basic education to children in remote villages in rural Quebec. The Souers de Notre-Dame du Saint-Rosaire de Saint-Germain de Rimouski today have 360 religious sisters active in Canada, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the United States.

Turgeon was born one of nine children to Angéle Louis Labrecque and Mark Turgeon in 1840. As a girl, she was a regular at the church in Beaumont, Que. At 15 her father died and Turgeon boarded with the Ursuline Sisters in order to finish her education.

She began her career as a teacher in 1862 in St. Romuald and then St. Anne de Beaupre and Quebec City.

The first bishop of Rimouski, Msgr. Jean Langevin, turned to Turgeon for help with educating children. In small, remote villages there was simply no schools for children to attend and many parents doubted the value of education.

Turgeon entered the newly founded Sisters of the Little Schools (Sœurs des Petites-Écoles) in 1875 and on taking vows became the order’s first superior in 1879. The order was dedicated to training teachers and founding schools.

Despite frail health, she travelled to all the remote villages of Rimouski persuading parents to enrol their children in school. She died on the job in 1881.

It was only in 1891, 10 years after her death, that Rimouski’s little teaching order renamed itself after the Holy Rosary.

Having been declared Venerable, a miracle attributed to Turgeon will make her a “Blessed” and a second miracle will be required to make her a saint.