1747
THE GENERAL HOSPITAL OF MONTREAL UNDER MADAME D'YOUVILLE
MADAME D'YOUVILLE--TIMOTHEE DE SILVAIN--CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY
FAMILY--"SOEURS GRISES"--PERSEVERANCE THROUGH OPPOSITION--FIRE
OF 1745--PROVISIONAL CONTROL OF HOSPITAL--ATTEMPT TO ANNEX THE
GENERAL HOSPITAL TO THAT OF QUEBEC--THE "GREY NUNS" FORMERLY
APPROVED AS "SISTERS OF CHARITY."
It was only in 1747 that the tottering fortunes of the _Hôpital
Général_ were handed over to Madame d'Youville, but she had long
before been designated for this work by M. Louis Normant du Faradon,
who had become the superior of the seminary as the successor of M. de
Belmont, who died on May 22, 1732. This lady who now enters into the
life of Montreal deserves more than passing notice. Marie Marguerite
de Lajemmerais was born at Varennes, near the Island of Montreal, on
October 15, 1701. Her father, Christophe Dufrost de Lajemmerais, or
La Gesmerais, a Breton _gentil homme_, came to New France in 1687 and
served bravely as an ensign under de Denonville against the Iroquois,
when he risked his life a number of times and escaped being burned
alive by the savages. He was raised to the lieutenancy and under
Frontenac he became the commandant of Cataracoui. In 1701, on January
18, he married Marie Renée de Varennes, daughter of René Gauthier de
Varennes, who died governor of Three Rivers, and granddaughter of
Pierre Boucher de Boucherville. Marie Marguerite was the first of six
children left at the death of Captain La Gesmerais, in 1708, in poor
circumstances. The widow was married to an Irish gentleman of the name
of Timothée de Silvain (or Sullivan), who had received his letters of
naturalization and an honorary brevet as king's physician in 1724. He
accordingly practiced medicine in Montreal to the satisfaction of the
seminary and the general public and with the favour of his patron, M.
de Vaudreuil. But on the latter's death the other doctors of Canada
disputed his right to practice, but unsuccessfully. M. de Silvain as a
good Irishman got into trouble with the Sieur de Monrepos, the justice
of Montreal, 1744, and a warrant for his arrest was issued. But owing
to the mediation of his brother-in-law, captain of the guard, M. de
Varennes, he escaped. But de Varennes was permanently deprived of his
command in consequence. Whatever his qualities as a medical man, Madame
de Vaudreuil, writing to the minister of marine in 1777, in favor of a
cadetship for the youngest of his stepsons, states that M. de Silvain
had been a true father and had spared no efforts to give the children
an education.
On August 12, 1722, Marie Marguerite de Lajemmerais married, in the
parish church, a gentleman of Montreal, M. François Madeleine You
d'Youville. It was an unhappy marriage, ending in great poverty through
the dissipation and extravagance of the husband who died unexpectedly
on July 4, 1730, after eight years of married life, leaving
considerable debts, and two boys. Three other children had already
died and a fourth died a little after its birth, on July 16, 1730. The
widow d'Youville in her grief, without neglecting the education of her
children, found consolation in devoting herself to the poor, especially
of the hospital of the Charon Frères. In addition she gave proof of
executive ability as a member of the ladies of the confraternity of
the Holy Family, as treasurer, assistant and superior. Such qualities
pointed her out to M. Lescöat, her Sulpician director, and to M.
Normant, who succeeded him, as the one who could save the utter decay
of the hospital. In 1737 Madame d'Youville associated with herself
in her charitable work for the poor a virtuous girl, Louise Thaumur
Lasource, a daughter of a physician of the town, to whom were added on
December 31st two others, Mademoiselle Demers and Mademoiselle Cusson.
These finally on October 30, 1738, having rented a house, undertook
the care of four or five poor persons, whose numbers soon rose to six.
This move met opposition in certain quarters since it was shrewdly
guessed that it was the intention of the seigneurs of the seminary,
the directors of the new formation, to prepare this band of women to
succeed to the care of the hospital. On All Saints' Day, November
1st, as they were leaving their new home, the women were subjected to
insults and stone throwing. The foul calumny was quickly insinuated
that they supported themselves by selling intoxicating liquors to the
savages and were not above indulging in them themselves. Hence they
called them the _Soeurs Grises_, the word, _grises_, besides meaning
grey, also conveying the approbrious suggestion of drunkenness. In
France the name "Soeurs Grises" was given to the devoted daughters of
Saint Vincent de Paul, whose grey habits were familiar among the poor
and wretched. It was an honoured name. But in Montreal the wits used
it in another sense. Time has since had its revenge. The hubbub was so
great that one of the Recollect Fathers publicly refused holy communion
to Madame d'Youville and her companions. A petition signed by M.
Boisberthelot de Beaucourt, the governor of Montreal, by eight officers
of the troops and twenty others, was sent to M. Maurepas, minister of
marine, protesting the action being taken by M. Normant in preparing to
seize the house for the Soeurs Grises as soon as the hospital should
cease. They prayed the minister to engage the Brothers of the Christian
Schools to incorporate the remaining Hospital Brothers into their
institute and thus perpetuate the institution, now ready to close for
want of subjects.
The sons of de la Salle could not accept Canada, as we have seen.
Unless the Sulpicians trained up Madame d'Youville's devoted band,
none others were forthcoming to continue the hospital and it must
inevitably close. And as to the seminary seizing on the property of the
Charon Frères, this was but rightful, as M. Tronson, the superior of
the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris, in the original donation of the
vast amount of ground for their institution had stipulated that if
the hospital should cease, the lands and the buildings thereon should
revert to the seigneurs, unless the brothers should prefer to reimburse
the price of the land. This had now become impossible.
Meanwhile the four ladies pursued their course, providing the means of
sustenance for themselves and their poor by their own needlework till
death struck down Mademoiselle Cusson on February 20, 1741. To add to
her afflictions Madame d'Youville was afflicted with a knee trouble
for six or seven years, which kept her inactive to her chair. Hardly
had she recovered when on the last day of January, 1745, an hour after
midnight, the house was burned down to the delight of her enemies,
who according to her biographer, M. Sattin, exclaimed: "You see that
violet flame? It is caused by the burning of the _eau de vie_ kept
for the savages." The fire drew the sisterhood nearer to one another
and on February 2d, by an act passed before M. Normant, they put all
their goods in common and drew up a religious rule of life. A house was
offered them by a rich trader, M. Fontblanche, but this the governor,
M. de Beaucourt, seized on as more suitable for himself. A charitable
Madame Lacorne offered her house, but this was shortly afterwards
relinquished for a more commodious one near the parish church to house
the three ladies and their nine poor dependants. Meanwhile, things
were going from bad to worse at the _Hôpital Général_, so that at last
the administrators of the hospital by letters of August 27, 1747,
handed over the provisional control to Madame d'Youville, one of the
conditions being that the two remaining hospital brothers should be
cared for. This happened under the governor general, the Marquis de
Beauharnois, and Intendant Hocquart. The work of making the sadly
needed repairs to the dilapidated buildings occupied September and on
October 7th Madame d'Youville and her companions took up residence.
These latter were _Mlles_, Thaumur, Demers, Rainville, Laforme,
Verroneau and _Mlle._ Despuis, who remained nine years as a boarder.
The hospital now began to realize its title of _général_, for none
but four old men were found there. Soon the number of sick and weak
began to increase of either sex without exception of age or condition
and the aims of its original charter were being realized. An early
side development was the establishment in the top part of the building
of a refuge for fallen women, which the soldiers of the town called
"Jericho." But changes in government were occurring. M. de Beauharnois
was replaced by M. de La Galissonière while awaiting the release of M.
de la Jonquière, detained a prisoner in England. The Intendant Hocquart
was replaced by M. Bigot.
[Illustration: CHARLES DE BEAUHARNOIS]
[Illustration: COMTE ROLAND-MICHEL BARRIN DE LA GALISSONNIERE]
New schemes were soon on foot, one of which was to unite the General
Hospital to the Hôtel Dieu of Quebec or of Montreal, or to General
Hospital of Quebec, which latter was approved of by M. de la Jonquière,
recently arrived in the colony, and M. Bigot, in a letter to the
minister on October 1, 1749. The object was to lessen expenses by
curtailing the number of public institutions. But its justice did
not appeal to the Montrealers, who were asked to transfer their aged
and sick to Quebec, when the _Hôpital Général_ had been founded by
Montreal charity for the infirm of their own town. Accordingly, Madame
d'Youville and her companions, backed up by M. Normant, petitioned
the governor general, the intendant and the bishop, but with little
success, owing to the predilection of M. Bigot for the general hospital
at Quebec.
On November 23, 1750, an ordinance secretly prepared at Quebec on
October 15th, was suddenly proclaimed in Montreal announcing by the
sound of the drum that the transfer of the hospital to Quebec was to
take place and that the nuns of Quebec could at once sell all the
buildings, together with furniture, not easily removable to Quebec,
and that those who were opposed to the sale could make their protests
to M. Bigot with three months! A curious derangement of the usual
practice. It is related that Madame d'Youville was out marketing for
her poor when she heard the announcement, for the first time, of her
downfall. The people, who by this had changed in their opinions toward
the "Soeur Grises" murmured long and loud against this injustice to
Montreal in favour of Quebec. A petition was drawn up by M. Normant
addressed to the minister and a copy was made to be sent by way of a
request to the bishop, the governor general and the intendant, both
being signed by the ecclesiastics of the seminary and by more than
eighty notables of the town, as the head of whom were the governor,
then M. de Longueuil, the lieutenant of the king, the town major, the
officers and the magistrates. This petition showed that the union of
the hospitals of Montreal and Quebec was null, being contrary to the
express word of Louis XIV, given to the citizens in 1692, two years
before the foundation of this establishment, namely, that the hospital
should subsist in perpetuity at Montreal without being able to change
its place or the nature of its pious work, and concluded that as the
private charity of many had founded this hospital the ordinance of
October 15th could not be legitimate. This petition Madame d'Youville
took to Quebec. But while being kindly received by the governor she
received scant courtesy from M. Bigot. Meanwhile the case had gone to
France, the Quebec religious had begun to take legal possession of
the hospital lands and to remove the furniture to Quebec, and July,
the time for the evacuation of the hospital by Madame d'Youville, was
approaching. At last M. Bigot received the letter of July 2, 1751, of
the minister to the governor general and the intendant, ordering the
suspension of the execution of the ordinance of October 15, 1750.
Finally on June 3, 1753, letters patent were signed by the king
at Versailles, handing over the privileges granted in 1694 to
Madame d'Youville and her companions to the number of twelve
_administratrices_. The community received their habit, which was
approved by a mandement, of Mgr. de Pontbriant on June 15, 1755. The
sisters chose the grey costume, now so familiar, and which was then
known in France as "_café au lait_." They wished to preserve the name
of "Grey Sisters" or _Soeur Grises_ given them first in derision. They
received their formal investiture of their habits on August 25th at
the hands of their patron, M. Normant. Their formal name was, however,
"Sisters of Charity."