Message from our Superior General

Welcome to ou web site of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint-Joseph

If you are interested in the history of the beginnings of Ville-Marie in Canada, go through the history of our Congregation, section “History”. You will be introduced to the dream which inspired the birth of a nation in Montreal.

The year 2009 will be a commemoration of a part of this dream which became reality, that is, the succession of the project of Hotel-Dieu by Jeanne Mance. 350 years ago, Jerôme Le Royer de La Dauversière asked three Daughters of Saint-Joseph, who were well established in their Foundation of 1636, to leave their native France. They had heard God’s call to Abraham “Leave your country, go to the land I shall show you”, taking the risk of travelling through all the dangers of the sea to carry to Ville-Marie the seed of love announced in scripture.

By taking care of and comforting the wounded, the sick, the dying, French and native, they wanted to announce that a Savior was truly present in their lives and to their sufferings.

It is the heroic acts of a Catherine Macé, Marie Maillet and Judith Moreau de Brésoles that we shall commemorate in 2009.

It is thus that the work of tenderness and compassion, begun in France, developed in the small village of Ville-Marie, then throughout Canada, the United States, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Africa and Mexico.

Have a nice visit at home.

Sister Marie-Thérèse Laliberté, r.h.s.j