Here is the context in which find Jeanne Mance before her departure to Canada:

Imagine that you are in the XVIIth century. You were 16 years old when your health declined and became fragilized, and since then you have had to be careful to properly balance your activities. You are now 34 years old, and despite your health condition, you went through the Thirty Years War, during which you learned nursing, your mother died when you were 20 and you are the second oldest in a family of 12 children. So along with the eldest of the family, you must look after your younger brothers and sisters.

In writing his "Histoire de Montréal", Sulpician priest Dollier de Casson reveals important details on the life of Jeanne Mance, prior to her personal involvement with the missions of New France. Without that document, little would be known about those details of her life. It is not surprising to realize that her biographers refer to the first thirty-four years of her life as the “secret years”. Her death, in 1673, was not heralded and no one bothered to write her story.

In my previous blog (Mademoiselle Mance in Langres) we covered Jeanne Mance’s life in Langres.  Let’s take a look at her life in Paris.

In 1640, five years after the death of her father, Jeanne became aware, through her cousin Nicolas, chaplain of the Holy Chapel in Paris, that nuns as well as society women were drawn to missionary work in New France. According to Dollier de Casson, it is around that time that Jeanne Mance felt drawn to missionary work in New France. The “real motive” of her true calling was growing roots deeper and deeper in a heart readied by a selfless life.

I recently went to visit the museum of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph at Montreal's Hotel Dieu Hospital. Their history sparked my attention on various aspects. Among those, it was Jeanne Mance who asked them to come to Canada to care for the sick. Following my visit and my research, I venture to make these comments.