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The Status of Nursing among the French Canadians of the Province of Quebec

1929; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 29; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/00000446-192903000-00010

1538-7488

Reverend Sister Augustine, Edith B. Hurley, Madame Rachel Bourque,

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

with eagerness, they knew the pressing needs of the Colony still in its infancy. Madame la duchesse d'Aiguillon, niece of the Cardinal de Richelieu, whose zeal equalled her piety, resolved to furnish the necessary funds to build in the city of Quebec a hospital destined for the colonists and the Indians, as the savages of the country are called. Three nuns, nursing sisters of Dieppe, of the order of the Chanoinesses of St. Augustin, were chosen for this heroic enterprise. In company with the first group of Ursuline nuns, among whom was Mother Marie of the Incarnation (who was called the T6r'se of New France), they arrived at Quebec on the first of August after a frightful voyage of three months. At this moment an epidemic of smallpox broke out among the Hurons; the nursing sisters, lodged temporarily by the Jesuits, put themselves to work immediately and in less than three months they had given care to more than two hundred of these unfortunates whose filth was equalled only by their misery. A life of unheard-of sufferings and privations began for the group of noble women, which was to be theirs for more than a century. Their unconquerable courage, their great charity, were above everything. Extreme poverty, the cruelty of the Iroquois, fire, war-nothing could conquer their devotion. In 1642 occurred the founding of Ville-Marie, today Montreal, 180 miles from Quebec. The distance of the borough of Hochelaga (the Indian name for Montreal) from that of Stadaconna (the Indian name for Quebec) necessitated the establishment of a new hospital, that of the HAtel-Dieu of Montreal. The same sublime devotion, the same heroic sacrifices that were so admired at Quebec surrounded the cradle of Ville-Marie. To the great Jeanne Mance (the collaborator of Maisonneuve), whose ability and qualities we know, was entrusted the direction of the new hospital. She is the first woman who appears in the origin of Ville-Marie (Montreal). With her noble heart, her sound judgment, her enterprising spirit, her firm will, and her heroic virtues, she is the fine pure type after which her followers are modeled. She associated with her the nursing sisters of la Fleche to help her and to continue her work. The history of these noble and ancient institutions is the history of Montreal, of its heroic origin, of its stirring struggles, of its astonishing