Agreement between Jeanne Le Ber and the Sisters of the Congrégation to build a chapel with an apartment where she could live her life as a recluse

Ville-Marie (Montreal), New France (Quebec), 4 August 1695.
Agreement between Jeanne Le Ber and the Sisters of the Congrégation to build a chapel with an apartment where she could live her life as a recluse

Jeanne Le Ber was born on January 4, 1662 in Ville-Marie (Montreal). Daughter of Jacques Le Ber, one of the wealthiest merchants in Montreal, and Jeanne Le Moyne, a member of the most influential families in New France, she studied with the Ursulines in Quebec where she learned embroidery. When Jeanne returned to Montreal in 1677, she became a recluse in a room in her parents’ house from where she would emerge once a day to attend Mass. When she learned that the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame were planning to build a chapel attached to their convent, she proposed to finance its construction with a condition attached: that adjacent to this chapel there would be an apartment where she could live in seclusion. On August 5, 1695, the day of the chapel’s inauguration, Jeanne entered her new quarters. This benefactor of the Congregation died on October 3, 1714.