Jeanne Mance: A Legacy Spanning Three Cities

This text is part of the special commemoration of Jeanne Mance

Jeanne Mance’s presence transcends the three cities.

By strolling through the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the visitor better understands the vision of the founders of the Quebec metropolis. In the XVII^e century, the idea that Ville-Marie could become an important economic center did not even cross their minds.

We first understand that Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière dreamed of a spiritual project intended to stand out from Quebec and Trois-Rivières. Originally from La Flèche, a town located in the Loir Valley, the man who did a lot for Ville-Marie without ever setting foot there would have had three mystical experiences between 1630 and 1635. They will thus inspire him to found the Congregation of Religious Hospitallers of Saint-Joseph in 1636, then the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal in 1641.

Leaving Langres, her hometown, in Champagne, Jeanne Mance, then neither widow, nor married, nor nun, was hired alongside Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve to build the foundations of this colony imagined by Jérôme Le Royer and a few other donors. . The future builder of the Hôtel-Dieu, after stays in La Flèche and Paris, left La Rochelle in 1641 for the first of a series of seven crossings of the Atlantic. All this to build a hospital, but much more.

A striking presence, no matter where

A modest place at the time of its foundation, the Hôtel-Dieu is almost the same age as the city that saw it grow and bears the imprint of the one who defended it with incredible strength until her death, in 1673. If we say that History is told more from the point of view of the victors than of the vanquished and from that of men rather than women, the vision of Jeanne Mance does not fade from the places she has marked by his unwavering commitment.

This presence, Annabel Loyola did not always feel it when she grew up in Langres, also curious to discover the world. After 15 years in Paris, the filmmaker moved to Montreal and, in 2006, during a conference by historian Jacques Lacoursière, discovered the exceptional destiny of this illustrious woman from her hometown.

“In Langres, there is a school in her name, a square, as well as a statue where it was said that she was the founder of the Hôtel-Dieu, underlines the documentary filmmaker who did not wear a great attention during his youth. When I made my first film (Crazy business. In the footsteps of Jeanne Mance, 2010), it was to right an injustice and recognize her major role as co-founder of Montreal. The documentary filmmaker was overwhelmed with joy on May 17, 2012, when the mayor at the time, Gérald Tremblay, made the official announcement.

For more than a decade, Annabel Loyola has devoted a great deal of effort to exploring the life of this exceptional woman, but also her legacy, whether it is witnessing the closure of the Hôtel-Dieu erected in 1861 at the foot of Mount Royal (The last breath. In the heart of the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal2017) or to explore a secret autobiography of Jeanne Mance (The city of a dream, 2022). Films that arouse interest on both sides of the Atlantic.

“We are used to saying that Annabel Loyola is the second most famous Montrealer in Langres,” says Nicolas Fuertes, deputy mayor of Langres, with joy. A graduate in history, he saw all the richness surrounding Jeanne Mance, and his city multiplied its efforts to highlight it, supported by the Langres-Montréal-Québec association, Jeanne Mance cultural center.

The association is proving to be “very dynamic and offers several events each year to rekindle the links between France and Quebec”, rejoices Nicolas Fuertes.

The discovery of the baptismal certificate of the founder of the Hôtel-Dieu in 1932, authenticating Langres as her birthplace, enabled the City to appropriate it further. Her family home was finally identified, where she lived until 1633, and research is continuing to find the second, where she stayed until 1640. Like the philosopher Denis Diderot, another local celebrity, “we we want to dedicate a specific place to Jeanne Mance,” said the deputy mayor.

Follow The Arrow

Nadine Grelet-Certenais, mayor of La Flèche, is full of praise for Annabel Loyola’s determination to make Jeanne Mance known. However, in this city, the historical presence of Jérôme Le Royer is greater, and “many Fléchois do not know this exceptional link which unites us with the city of Montreal”, regrets the elected official.

If she recognizes that the toponymy makes some pretty winks in Quebec (the boulevard of Quebec, the alley of the Saint-Laurent, etc.), Nadine Grelet-Certenais wishes to “communicate more this particularity”, and by Jeanne Mance , to illustrate “this great adventure long told as a story of men while women have largely contributed to it”.

Much like in Montreal, La Flèche also faces inevitable transformations. The last nuns of the Congregation of Saint-Joseph left the city in 2021, the municipality finding itself with an important real estate heritage to preserve. The mayoress also wishes to “restore the image” of the Port Luneau sector, where the hospital sisters designated to lend a hand to Jeanne Mance in 1659 left.

As for Annabel Loyola, she often returns to both cities, an ambassador always welcomed with open arms, to “return to her sources, to her origins”, whether she is in Langres or La Flèche. “Jeanne Mance spent a good part of her life bequeathing the Ville-Marie project; the nuns do it today as best they can. It is up to us, now, to take an interest in it. As does the Museum of the Hospitallers of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, which wishes to collaborate more with the cities of Langres and La Flèche, to highlight their common history.

This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, relating to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.

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