Jeanne Mance

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Statue in honor of Jeanne Mance on Avenue des Pins in Montreal

Jeanne Mance (born November 12, 1606 in Langres , France , † June 18, 1673 in Montreal ) was a French lay nurse and nurse . She was involved in founding the city of Montreal and founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first hospital on Canadian soil.

biography

Mance was born into a wealthy civil servant family and grew up in Langres in northern Burgundy . After her mother's death, she took over the upbringing of her younger siblings. During the Thirty Years' War the Bishop of Langres financed the building of a hospital and the establishment of a sisterhood. The deeply religious Mance joined this and devoted herself to nursing.

In 1640 Mance learned of the existence of the newly founded Société Notre-Dame de Montréal , which wanted to build an idealistic-utopian Christian settlement project in New France and convert the natives. She went to Paris to make contacts with people who would help her set up a hospital. She secured financial support from the Jesuits , the widow of the French finance minister, and from Anna of Austria , the wife of King Louis XIII.

In May 1641 the colonists, led by officer Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance, set sail from La Rochelle . After three months they reached Québec , where they hibernated. The following spring they sailed up the Saint Lawrence River and landed on the Île de Montréal on May 17, 1642 . Maisonneuve founded the Ville-Marie settlement there , from which the city of Montreal later developed. Mance is considered the second founder of Montreal because of her organizational talent in building the settlement.

After Mance had set up a hospital room in her house, she founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal on October 8, 1645 , the first hospital on Canadian soil. It was housed in a building completed in 1645 that offered space for eight patients and was replaced by a new building nine years later. In 1650 Mance stayed in France again. When she returned to Montreal the following year, she learned that the colony's very existence was threatened by repeated attacks by the Iroquois . She gave Maisonneuve the money that was actually intended for the expansion of the hospital so that it could recruit new settlers in France.

Together with Marguerite Bourgeoys , Mance went to France again in 1659. She recruited three nuns from La Flèche to help her nurse in Montreal. From 1662 to 1664 Mance stayed in France one last time. She died in Montreal in 1673.

The Parc Jeanne-Mance at the foot of Mont Royal, a constituency in the greater Montreal area and the building of the Canadian Ministry of Health in Ottawa are named after Jeanne Mance . She was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in April 2020 .

In the beatification process initiated for her, Pope Francis awarded her the heroic degree of virtue on November 7, 2014 .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Jeanne Mance  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , November 8, 2014, accessed January 15, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Mance, Jeanne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French lay sister and nurse
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1606
PLACE OF BIRTH Langres
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1673
Place of death Montreal