Jeanne Mance was born in Langres, France, to a minor nobility family. From an early age, she decided not to marry and serve God and people in need. When the Thirty Years War reached her region, she started to work with charitable societies, developed nursing skills, and even attended to the victims of the plague that burst in her area and killed more than 5,000 people in Langres.

In 1640, at the age of 34, Mance was recruited by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve as a member of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, to travel to the New World and establish a new French colony on the Island of Montréal. Her role in the mission was to find a hospital for the settlers. Devoted to the cause, she persuaded donors to finance the mission and recruit more members. Thanks to her, the donations doubled, and the number of new settlers expanded from 8 to 38. Nine of them were women.

On May 9th, 1641, the expedition embarked on three months journey across the Atlantic, reaching the Island of Montreal on May 17th, 1642. On her arrival, she got the responsibility for all “indoors,” including food, housing, health, and property, while Maisonneuve was in charge of “outdoors and war.” In that same year, Mance began to operate a hospital in her home, and within three years, she founded the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, serving as a nurse, director, and treasurer.

The hospital was small, containing only eight beds (six for men and two for women). The equipment was poor, and the funds were running out. In addition, the living conditions were difficult, the climate was harsh, and many of the first settlers left the colony. Given the circumstances, in 1650, 44 years old Mance traveled to France and managed to recruit more donations and more colonists, one of them was Marguerite Bourgeoys, a French nun and the founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. Seven years later, Mance went on another recruiting mission in France, returning with enough money and three nuns who helped in the hospital. With the new staff, Mance was able to work less at the hospital and focused on the colony’s administration.

She died at the age of 67 after a long illness.