Founder of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal and founder of Montreal in 1642, Jeanne Mance (1606-1673) played a crucial role in the establishment of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in Montreal.
In 1658, Jeanne Mance returned to France to seek out the Daughters Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, whose congregation had been founded by Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière in 1636 in La Flèche, to help her care for the hospital patients. The first three Daughters Hospitallers, Judith Moreau de Brésoles, Catherine Macé and Marie Maillet arrived in Montreal in 1659.
Upon the death of Jeanne Mance in 1673, the administration of the Hôtel-Dieu was entrusted to the Sulpicians until 1676, when the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph accepted its administration. The year 1973 marked the departure of the last Religious Hospitaller from the management of the Hôtel-Dieu.
Although Jeanne Mance remained unmarried and secular throughout her life, her bones are preserved in the crypt located under the chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal alongside nearly 600 Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph.
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