Mondoux, Soeur

English

epublications@Marquette

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 12 | Number 4 Article 6October 1944Jeanne Mance ... Pioneer Medical MissionarySoeur MondouxFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationMondoux, Soeur (1944) "Jeanne Mance ... Pioneer Medical Missionary," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 12: No. 4, Article 6.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol12/iss4/6THE LIN ACRE QUARTERLY JEA~~NE MANCE ... PION~ER MEDICAL MISSIONA~Y* BY SOEUR MONDOUX The !tame - Jeanne Mance -rcminiscfnt of so much generosity and heJ'pism, has become an en-sign, as · it were, for the nursing professipn in Canada. More than that, it~ fame Jl·as extended tq other lq.nds even beyond the sea and it is with pride that the mis-sion nurses and women doctors of our own day look to this valiant Frenchwoman for courage and in-spiratiqn. Scarpely half a century haq passed 11ince Jacques Cartier had raised the first cross on the shore of Gaspe Bay when a little girl-Jeannec...--was born in the house-hold of Pierre Mance in Langres, a city of old Champagne. No doubt ~1er father, an attorney in the service of the royal court, was well aware of the happenings-the stFategies, the struggles, the deeds of valom~-then taking place in that New France so far across the sea. But there is :qo reason to suppose that any qf these events particularly im-pressed the mind of his litt}e daughter, as she grew up peace-fully ~tnd ordinarily under the strict f,lnd well-ordered tutelage of the Ursuline Sisters of Langres. Evep. when she had completed her stpdies, the regularity of her life rJmained unbroken by any-thing 'beyond the ordinary-for she sljpped quietly and unobtru-sively 'into the performance of the • Reprinted from The Jledi~al .Uilsion-arg. regular household tasks of the day, becoming a "little mother" to her younger brothers and sis-ters who had been prematurely orphaned. Nor does even the slightest idea of any other voca-tion s~em to have occurred to her. Providence, it appears, was keep-ing her for another mission--one which would deJiland all the lib-erty of action a woman could muster in those days. Thus-as hop.sekeeper 11nd as foster-mother - Jeanne Mance spent the early years of her wo-manhood-until the wars between France and Spain, and the epi-demics which inevitably followed, interrupted the quiet life of the people of Langres. Plague swept the countryside, and Jeanne Mance, already somewhat experi-enced in nursing through the care she had given her younger bro-thers and sisters, now turned to the task of tending the many sick of the neighborhood. She nursed the suffering, consoled the dying -meditating daily on the strug-gle between death and life she saw constantly enacted before her. Jeanne was now thirty-three years old, and having thus tasted the joy of devoting herself whole-heartedly to the work of nursing the sick, she felt that a life with-out some definite aim-some goal -was after all but pale aQd mean-ingless. Her brothers and sisters no longer needed her-but what was she to do? r A71 THE LIN A. a ·B B> Q U A B T E B L Y -.. , . . It 1 was then the year 1640~ There were great comings and ' goin~ b~tweep the rough and savage· lands_ far across the sea and the mother-country. The old Frimj!e thrilled to the tales of her explorers, hef coureurs de bois, her missionaries, the Jesuits and the :necollets: ·A receiver of taxes in"A!ljou, Je~ome le Royer de la Dti.'uversiere, wiis just then dream-ing his dream· of planting a mis~ sion · in New France, and the y&urig pri~st, Jean Jacques Olier, . the fqturc founder of the Semi-miry :of Sainte Sulpice, was help-ing him tq realize his vision. Not eveq a ·year had· passed since six nuns;'· among them Mere Marie de l'Incarnatjon, and - three Jesuit · f~thers .. h~d left their . pleasant homeland ~n the service of 'the. Ca-nadian missioqs. · Is it any :won-~er then, that those who r~mained behind~ were full of hopes and dreams: :fo1·. the · 'New ·France? - . . I~ so h11ppeped that · while she 'Y'as 'questioning her future, Jeanne ?tet ~ · coqsin, a chaplain of the Sainte Cha,pelle of Paris, who was more than ordiparilv interested in these pourngeotis endeavors. · Filled With ·zeal and e~thusiasm, he spoke to her of the heroism of the sisters wh~ had . just embarked for Que-bec. · No doubt he told her, .too; of the vision of the mystic, de la Dauversiere' and of the Society of Notre-Pame de Mont Royal which 'was'. engaged in raising funds and organizing an · expedition to build the missioq of Yille-Marie, .the fu-ture Montreal. · Immediately Jealme was won over to the cause--she would join these pioneers. In the meantime she prayed that God might give her the light and strength to do wh11tever was asked of her; for to sacrifice the persons and things slu; held most dear-to deposses.s herself of .· all these-did not this require a supernatural strength-a special grace? _ And, moreover; how could her poor; frail body ever endure ' the adversities of the pitiless climate of the new coun-try?. · In~' her-dreams she saw wild wastes of ice and snow~so differ-ent from · the pleasant warmth · of her dear Champagne. Jeam1e saw aU these obstacles_:..:_but her. deci'--sion was . irreyocable. She . had found her vocation; she ·would follow it, and this despite the im=-mediate and the unbelievable diffi-culties which each in their : turn wquld try to paralyz~ her· work. ~' Thus ·placing ~er confidence ~ God and remaining faithful to the counsel she had received,' Jeanne went . to Paris. 'Paris presented to her Father Sairit Jure and Fatlter Charles Lal~nient, both. 'of thein Jesuits. Th~ ·latter had returned from New France only two years agq ·and at that very time was ·in communication with Jerome de la Dauvers~ere concerning the foun-dation of the mission of Ville-1\f~tie ~ At Paris also, she met an--other · missionary, Father' Charles Rapine ·of ·_the 'Recollets, who Sn~ hoduced her to ·a. certain Madame de Bullion. ·This generous wom~n Wll~ afterwards to give her the necessary funds with which to cr~pt a small hospital in Mont r sa 1 THE LIN~ORE QU~RTERLY Royal. Th~ time for . action had come. Iir the spriiJgtiine of i641 she left Paris · for the port of La Rochelle ·whence the ships were to set sail for New ·France. The meeting with ]a Da\lversi~re, who had come to survey the peparture of his first e~pedition, 1\'ith Paul de Chome-dey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, who was to lead it, but served to con-firm.her conyictions and strengthen he-r ' courag~. Did not the former hiinself explain to her ·the designs with :: which Providence had in-spired hini for the establishment. 6{. the futur~ colony of Montreal? Did · he riot foretell the role she ril.ust ·fulfill in the new inission_:_ that of caripg for the sick, be they French or J ndians~of building a hospital .wh~ch would later receive the 'help of the Hospitalers of St; Joseph who had been especially founded for · this work at" La Fleche in Anjou? Yes, indeed, it was tmNew Ft;ance that-she must go. () At · last,. after long ·and ~tire­some weeks · of sailing; the ship bearing Jeanne Mance to the country of her mission dropped anchor at . the foot of the ram-parts of Quebec. ·Although it · had been ~ no more than late spring w:l:ten . they left . France,. the pil-grit;ns found the .autumn already tqo Jar advanced to risk the as-ce~t of the Saint Lawrence to the I~l{! of Mont Royal. Accordingly th~y ·decided to spend the winter of 1641 in the settlement of Que-h~c/· wlicrc thev received the hos-]i"italitjr" .. of t~eir friends·. · ·· .. . • • • ·It was already springtim~the early flowers could be seen pe¢p-ing tip here and there in the mea-qows, when Maisonneuve and 'his Riirly r fin~lly · embarked ·· at St. Michel and nosed their large flat-qottomed boat and their 1 two ca-qoes up the Saint L~~rence· to-wards the Isle Jacques Car tiers hid \ discovered. 'some severity-Qdd years before. Ten ~ays Iate~n the 17th ·of May~ 1642--the pio-qeers sighted the rocky eminence overhanging the islLi:nd which the same explorer had named Mont IJ.oyal.· They landed nea'r a green . meadow...:_and . while the men 'un-der the direction of Maisonneuve erected ·a platform, the worill'!n, Jeanne Mance and her compani'oll, chariott~' -Ba:ire, · together ·with ~Iadame· de la Peltrie ' who had joined them in Quebec; :prepared an altai· . . On the next day, which was a Sunday, the Jesuit, Father Vimont, offered the· first ·· Holy 1\fass on the site of Montreal. Thus the colony was · born~ . · · For some thirty yea~ Jeanne · Mance shared in the · struggles which accompanied the foundation of . Montreal. 9fteri.; · fr~m .· her small Hotel~Dieu, constr~cted not far'· from the entrance of the sur.:. rpunding forest;· she ~oi.tid, see the savage Iroquois gliding stealthily tnrough the deep woods · beyond. 'fo live in that r~ugh counfry that she might win for God ·th~ so~ls of these savages and bring · closer tp Him the handful of f'rench coF onisl:S~ure(y' this . \vas' an ex-alted purpol?e--but what courage djd it not demand! ,.--::::~=~ -~y---:-· ~- . f iro 1 ! ,.-: ~,' \ S U N I V E" ~ ·"' "':'- -, 7' HE LIN A ORE 'foge~her with the ordinary evepts acco,npanying her work am~pg the sick, Jeanne Mance was al&o to experience the vicissi-tudes of alptost continual war-fare. Very often-in fact practi-c,lly ~}ways-the hospital of VilJe-Marie pore the appearance of a military establishment. Th~re was constant danger of at-tack, aqd in the frequent encoun-ters with the Iroquois many were severely wounded. These she ours~, encouraging them in their strugglf!s. Certainly her work for the sick and sufl'ering would suffice to es-tablish the heroism of Jeanne Maqce. But the misfortunes con-tinually besetting the colony of-fered an -opportunity to display in various other aspects hl!r marvel-ous str~ngth of will and her as-tonishing initiative. When death visited the new-born settlement, JcaQnc raiseq up the torch of life. "\Vhen, after three serious set-backs, the post was almost ruined from lack of help and lack of funds, she herself journeyed to Frllnce seeking aid-and three times· she saved the colony. It is no wonder that historians link her name with that of Maisonneuve as the co-fpundress of Montreal. Throughout all these years she was very much concerned with the futQre of the settlers. She sought for priests who were to remain to minister to tj1e spiritual needs of the colonists ;-she asked for teach-ing sisters to instruct their young sons ancl daughters; she desired abo\'e all the arrival of the Hos-QUARTERLY pital Sisters who were to continue the work with which she had been ~harged in their name. ·Today the task thus begun by Jeanne Mance is carried on by these same sisters ~the Hospitalers of St. Joseph -in many hospitals throughout Canada and the United States-~mong them the famou~ Hotel-Dieu of Montreal. Her beneficence extended also to the children of Ville-Marie whom ~}le regarded as her god-children _:_to the orphans, for whom she secured instruction and whom she assisted in establishing themselves in life. After she had relinquish('(} the care of the sick to the sisters, these various tasks, together with the administration of the hospital )"hich she retained, occupied her for several years until her death on the 18th of June, 1673. Her life, so extraordinarily fruitful, was indeed one of the greatest mo-ment for the establishment of the little city which was to become qne of the most important metro-politan centers of Canada. • • • In the history of North Amer-ica there is perhaps no other hero-ine better suited to serve as a model for the young women of ou1· own day than Jeanne l\Iance. She reaches out to them from beyond the distance which separates the conditions of our time from those under which she carried on her work-the medical missionary of Ville-Marie. A a nurse she ljceded the needs of the suffering; r 9o 1 

Jeanne Mance ... Pioneer Medical Missionary

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1579&amp;context=lnq

Jeanne Mance ... Pioneer Medical Missionary

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

epublications@Marquette