Tax collector, father and committed Christian
Born in La Flèche, France, on March 18, 1597, Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière was the son of a tax collector Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière, and of Rénée Oudin. He had a brother named René, later Lord of Boistaillé, and a sister named Marguerite.
In 1608, at the age of eleven, young Jérôme enrolled at the Collège Henri-IV in La Flèche, where he completed his classical studies under the guidance of the Jesuit fathers. Upon his father’s death in 1619, Jérôme succeeded him as tax collector. In 1621, he married Jeanne de Baugé, daughter of Michel de Baugé and Marie Aubert from Saint-Pavin de la Cité in Le Mans. They had five children, Jérôme, the eldest, who married and had children ensured the continuity of the family lineage. Joseph and Ignace became priests, while Jeanne and Marie became nuns. His large house was welcoming to both the poor and boarders like Pierre Chevrier, Baron de Fancamp, a steadfast friend who supported Jérôme Le Royer in all his endeavors.
Jérôme Le Royer was a committed Christian, a member of the Third Order of Franciscans and the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament. At school, he was a member of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, under the title of the Purification. Later, to promote devotion to Saint Joseph, Jérôme founded a Confraternity of the Holy Family, which included the first Daughters Hospitallers of La Flèche.
In 1630, Jérôme Le Royer received two great missions from God: to found a community of Daughters Hospitallers and to establish a French colony on the Island of Montreal, in Canada.
Founder of a community of Daughters Hospitallers of Saint Joseph
On February 2, 1630, the Feast of Purification, in the chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Chef-du-Pont, Jérôme Le Royer, filled with great fervor after having received communion, felt called to found a congregation of Daughters Hospitallers for the service of the sick poor in the former chaplaincy or Maison-Dieu of La Flèche.
While waiting to follow up on this mandate, Jerome rebuilt the dilapidated old hospital near the Church of Saint Thomas. The renovated hospital would soon become the site of the community of the Daughters Hospitallers of Saint Joseph. Comprised of Marie de la Ferre and a few companions, the community was officially established at the Hôtel-Dieu de La Flèche in May 1636.
Man of action: Originator of a French colony in Montreal
Mr. Le Royer is the administrator and the attorney for the community of the Daughters Hospitallers of Saint Joseph.
He took charge of the new foundations: in 1650, the community spread to Laval and Baugé, then in 1651, to Moulins in Allier. In 1659, Monsieur Le Royer appointed three Hospitallers to assist Jeanne Mance at the Hôtel-Dieu in Montreal.
The second part of Jérôme Le Royer’s mission took shape at roughly the same time and also stemmed from divine inspiration. In February 1635, at Notre-Dame de Paris, Monsieur Le Royer found himself in the presence of the Holy Family and heard Jesus say to him: “You will henceforth be my faithful servant. I will clothe you with strength and wisdom, and your guardian angel will guide you. Work hard at my work; my grace is sufficient for you and will not fail you.”
From then on, his plans, initially dismissed as “pious chimeras” by his advisors, were taken seriously. Monsieur Le Royer felt called to found a colony on the Island of Montreal, upstream from the small town of Quebec on the St. Lawrence River in Canada, where Indigenous peoples and French settlers would live in harmony. Jérôme took action in a spirit of great faith and surrender.
Although he never went to New France, Jérôme Le Royer devoted a great deal of time and effort, between 1635 and 1659, as the main proponent of a project to establish a French colony on the Island of Montreal. With his collaborator and faithful friend, Pierre Chevrier, Baron de Fancamp, Jérôme acquired the Island of Montreal and established the settlement in collaboration with the Sulpician priest Jean-Jacques Olier. As the settlement’s procurator on the Island of Montreal, Jérôme Le Royer took care of supplies and recruited settlers who signed three- to five-year contracts.
With great discernment, Jerome chose Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve as governor of Ville-Marie and his collaborator Jeanne Mance, who founded and directed the hospital. In 1642, in Paris, Jerome Le Royer and the members of the Society of Gentlemen and Ladies of Montreal dedicated the Island of Montreal to the Holy Family.
On June 29, 1659, Jérôme Le Royer witnessed the departure of the first three Daughters Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in La Rochelle, whom he had chosen to serve the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal in Canada. The founder of Montreal was not solely a businessman. His life, dedicated entirely to the service of God and the poor, exerted an influence that extended beyond borders and even to the Americas.
Man of faith: faithful servant of God
Dom Oury, a Benedictine, who studied the spirituality and life of Jérôme Le Royer in depth, considers him to be a “mystic turned towards action.”
A great man of prayer, Jerome was deeply attached to Christ. He declared: “God alone is my all.” He had only one goal: to fulfill God’s will by pursuing the mission the Lord entrusted to him. He believed in the impossible, while demonstrating great docility to the Spirit and a profound inner freedom.
Without even knowing if his Daughters Hospitallers had arrived in Montreal, Jérôme Le Royer died in La Flèche on November 6, 1659. His mission was accomplished: his works had taken root and would continue through time. Montreal survived and the Religious Hospitallers would multiply throughout France, Canada, the United States, and Latin America.
Life of Jérôme Le Royer in pictures
Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière is the founder of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph and the true founder of the city of Montreal. It was he who chose Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve to govern this new establishment in New France.
The reproduction of Jérôme Le Royer’s life in images is a nod to the city of Montreal, which celebrates its 375th anniversary of founding in 2017.
In order to raise awareness of this great man of the 17th century, the Committee of Founders of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph has produced a series of seven displays, also known as advertising banners, entitled Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière (1597-1659): An Unusual Destiny.
Congratulations and thanks go to Sister Jeanine Blanche, chair of the committee, Jean Petit, Christophe Maillet and Marie-Thérèse Rivière, who graciously approved the reproduction of these magnificent banners (in French only) on the congregation’s website.
