HANDS TO THE NEEDY: d'Youville, Apostle to the Poor

Predominantly inclined towards a religious book audience in its subject and in its treatment which is inspirational, this is the story of Canada's Marie Marguerite d'Youville who dedicated her life to the service of others. Sent to the Ursuline Convent in Quebes for two years, the influence there was a formative one on her deeply devout temperament. Marrying (a marriage of ""reason"" rather than ""inclination"") Francois d'Youville, she was quickly disillusioned in her husband who proved to be crude, callous and self absorbed and who died leaving her with six children and many debts. Opening a store, her success with the store enabled her to work among the poor as well, and she reorganized the General Hospital in Montreal, founded her order of Grey Nuns which met with initial prejudice but was finally sanctioned by the King as well as the Pope, and devoted the balance of her life to the poor, the sick, the orphaned... For a Catholic market primarily.