THE RELIGIOUS HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOSEPH IN AMERICA

While the Congregation of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph was strengthening its roots in France, Mr. Le Royer was preparing for the colonization and evangelization of the Island of Montreal, where the Daughters of St. Joseph would eventually look after the sick, in a hospital that would be constructed there. In 1641, Jerome Le Royer chose Paul de Chomedey, Mr. Maisonneuve, to govern the colony and Jeanne Mance to establish Hotel Dieu.

Montreal was in existence for 17 years before the Daughters of St. Joseph could finally cross the Atlantic “to work in the Lord’s harvest” in the vast “New World”. After being blessed by their founder, Sisters Judith Moreau de Brésoles, Catherine Macé and Marie Maillet left La Rochelle in the spring of 1659. They arrived in Ville-Marie in October, founding the first feminine, religious community in Montreal. With Jeanne Mance, they began a long tradition of collaboration between lay people and religious, which still continues in their congregation.

FOUNDATIONS IN QUEBEC

Thanks to his initiative and to the donations for the hospital offered to Mr. Maisonneuve, a recruitment of 100 men arrived in 1653 and saved Ville Marie, which was in danger of perishing under the death-dealing blows of the Iroquois. In January 1657, Jeanne fell on the ice and lost the use of her right hand. Accompanied by Marguerite Bourgeois, Miss Mance went to La Flèche, France, to receive the Daughter Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, whom Mr. Le Royer had personally chosen for this Canadian foundation. In Paris, Jeanne Mance was healed through the intercession of Jean Jacques Olier. On October 20, 1659, she returned to Montreal, accompanied by three Daughters of Saint Joseph. Miss Mance continued as Administrator of Hotel Dieu until her death on June 18, 1673. The Hospitallers of Saint Joseph were then given the responsibility of administering the “goods of the poor” of Hotel Dieu.

Soon after her arrival, Jean Mance opened a clinic in the fort. Then in 1644, she had the first Hotel Dieu constructed on the corner of the present Saint Paul and Saint Sulpice streets. The enlarged Hotel Dieu, rebuilt after three major fires, would be the only hospital in Montreal until 1822; at this time it had 31 beds. In 1857, the Sisters took in orphans.

In 1996, Hotel Dieu became part of CHUM (Montreal University Hospital Centre). The appointment of the Board of Directors of CHUM was no longer made by the R.H.S.J. Today at the beginning of the 21st century, a few sisters visit the sick and are volunteers in the hospital. One sister is sacristan in a little chapel; another is responsible for the Sunday Mass for patients, made vibrant by the Sisters’ choir at the Mother House; another Sister looks after the wardrobe for hospitalized, economically poor persons.

In 1852, at the request of Bishop Bourget, the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, bought a no-longer used, former Anabaptiste College, located in the Saint Antoine neighbourhood and opened a hospital there of 60 - 80 beds to care for the Irish. Saint Patrick’s Hospital closed on the opening of the new Hotel Dieu on Saint Urban Street.

Arriving in Montreal in 1659, the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, in time the Hotel Dieu Sisters, formed a community to serve the sick. They lived in “Old Montreal” until 1861. The “monastery” of the Sisters on West Pine Avenue became the “Mother House” during its transformation, in 1949, from an autonomous house to the General House. It became the headquarters for the General Administration through the bringing together under one general government, the communities in Montreal and Arthabaska, as well as some young foundations in Biddeford, Maine; Hauterive and Saint Jerome. In 1953, at the time of the union of the three Generalates in America (Bathurst, N. B.; Montreal, QC and Kingston, ON), the first house founded in America became the headquarters of the new General Administration and kept the name “Mother House”.

The Sisters of the General Administration lived in the “Mother House”, until a new building, adjoining this house, was constructed in 1950 and could receive them. This building would remain “The Generalate” until 1975.

The “Mother House” provides diverse services, one of which is an infirmary. It remains “home” for RHSJ’s elsewhere, who come to Montreal for sessions, retreats, congregation meetings, studies, medical consultations, convalescence, etc.

The First Marie de la Ferre Residence (1964 - 1992)

At the end of August 1992, considering the growing number of requests for lodging, the leaders of the Congregation accepted that a small community group be formed, for the purpose of welcoming guests. The other Hospitallers still living at the Residence were appointed to the Mother House. In the context of the eventual acquisition by HDM of Marie de la Ferre Residence, a plan for moving the work was presented and accepted, Congregation leaders recognizing that it responded to a real need.

This small stone building, situated in the parking lot of the Mother House, was used as an employee’s residence, classrooms for lay or religious students, a residence for a local community. In 1989, a project for journeying in faith was begun by Sr. Juline Roberge; in 1991, Sisters Nicole Cournoyer and Cécile Gagné took over, while Sister Denise Lefebvre was part of the group from 1995 to 2001. Since then Sister Gagné continues the project with a committed laywoman Maria-Régina of Albuquerque Melo.

On April 1, 1980, a small community composed of Sisters Nicole Gaudet, Marguerite Mercier and Eliane Pépin moved into the building of the “St. Urban Housing Cooperative”. After fourteen years, the few sisters living at the Co-op considered that they had attained their social justice goal, by making the buildings clean and healthy and in welcoming several persons with low income, one of whom was a Vietnamese family (Boat people). In December 1997, the renters became the owners.

1. Hôtel-Dieu de Saint-Joseph (1884-1998)

Home for elderly / sick persons, and for orphans

A new wing constructed in 1923 housed one hundred children until 1943, the year of their transfer to the Diocesan orphanage in Nicolet.

In1960, the bed capacity at Hôtel Dieu was not sufficient for the growing, more and more specialized demands; a new hospital of 300 beds was built on the site of the former establishment. In 1998, the RHSJ Congregation ceded the Hôtel-Dieu d’Arthabaska to the Provincial Government.

In May 1951, the RHSJ acquired from the Provincial Government the former college building of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Victoriaville, conforming to a ministerial ruling which decreed that it be sold for one dollar ($1.00). The repair work on the building was finished at the beginning of December 1952 and the 85 elderly persons from Hotel Dieu, housed since 1943 in the former orphanage, found a permanent home at Ermitage Saint-Joseph. Twelve sisters from Arthabaska accompanied them to the new lodgings; they administered this work until 1977, when the Hermitage was ceded to the Provincial Government.

In the 1940's, some people from Sorel decided to endow their city with a hospital. Their approach to some Quebec religious communities having been in vain, the directors of the project turned to the RHSJ of Campbellton, New Brunswick. After having visited the site in September 1944, Sisters Berthe Arseneau and Léa Audet presented the Sorel project to their Community Council, who accepted it.

1. SAINT-JÉRÔME Hôtel-Dieu (1947 - 1976)

Mrs. Ruby DeCastegnier is at the origin of the opening, in this beautiful village of 830 persons in the Laurentians, of a small R.H.S.J. community. One day in 1995, she invited some sisters on vacation in Lac Ouareau to come and look after disadvantaged persons in the region.

1. HAUTERIVE BAIE-COMEAU

This house was born from a call in the heart of Sister Yvonne de la Mirande, who began S.O.S. Amitié (a help line) and the Manicouagan Centre for mutual aid and emergency help. This little centre of hospitality for anyone in distress, where mostly suicidal, alcoholic and drug-addicted men knocked at the door, moved in 1979, to a completely new house especially constructed for these men. Point de Rencontre, is open 24 hours a day, and is recognized by Correctional Services; it offers within, two months of therapy, individual accompaniment, group and individual meetings, renewal, short term emergency aid. Those who wish can have therapeutic followup from the exterior. Two Hospitallers of Saint-Joseph are still working there in 2003, helped by 12 lay employees.

Amitié de Nazareth House (The Friendship of Nazareth) (1883 - )

The project of opening a house for palliative care was begun in 1982 by lay people with a certificate from the course Approach to the Dying given by Sister Odette Lavallée, who without hesitation, became part of the group. A board of directors was formed and, despite the always limited financial resources, a house of 22 rooms was bought and outfitted to receive seven sick persons at a time. The Vallée des Roseaux opened its doors in May 1988.

Hôtel-Dieu de Hauterive was responsible for assuring care as far as Natashquan, nearly 1600 km. farther north. Sister Madeleine St-Michel, then Director of Nursing Care at the Hauterive hospital, and Sister Léona Landry took over the clinic of Natashquan in September 1974. They were at the service of a population of about 1,500 persons, divided into four localities, among which was a First Nations reserve. At that time the road finished at Sept-Iles; the sole means of transportation was a plane in fine weather, and a boat once a week. In the absence of a doctor, the sisters were mid-wives, dentists, saw to all health problems, did preventative medicine in the villages and schools. It also happened that they had to escort very sick persons and accident victims by plane to the bigger centres for treatment. They also organized liturgical celebrations in the parish.