Jeanne Mance: A biography

Jeanne Mance: A biography

In 1640, a young woman of 24 years, born in Regent-le-Roi, learned of missionary work to be had in the French colony of New France. This woman, Jeanne Mance was to become the founder of a proposed hospital in Montreal to administer to both the French settlers and the “savages” as they were then called.

Jeanne Mance, a great role model not just for the nurses of today but also to women everywhere, is best described as intelligent, energetic, and independent. These qualities would have had to be used for her to take on so great a responsibility. This great woman spoke before the court of Louis XIIIth to spark the nobility’s interest in this project, and to get funding. In June of 1641, a ship set sail with only one woman on board, and this woman was about to become the first lay-nurse on the continent of North America.

After spending a winter in this hostile and foreign land, Jeanne moved out to the wilderness settlement of Mont. Royal. There she founded, organized and fundraised for Hotel Dieu, which was soon to become a refuge and dispensary. Her job was very trying, and for seventeen years, she did it alone. The inhabitants of the area were helped to survive through the bitterly cold winters in flimsy, un-insulated shelters and the constant threat of Indian attacks. Eventually relief arrived in the form of a small group of nursing nuns. This same group of nuns founded the Hotel Dieu in Kingston.

Not wanting to slack off now that help had arrived, Jeanne decided to start a large fundraising campaign. She traveled the ocean many times over to collect fund from the overly pampered female nobility of France. Today the Jeanne Mance School of Nursing, founded in 1902, commemorates the hard work and heroism of a woman that dies in 1673 at the age of 67.

May we never forget that only thanks to such relatively unknown heroes as Mance did our fair city develop to become such a thriving urban community. Hotel Dieus are scattered across North America to...