Jeanne Le Ber (4 January 1662 – 3 October 1714) was a religious

recluse A recluse is a person who lives in voluntary seclusion from the public and society. The word is from the Latin ''recludere'', which means "shut up" or "sequester". Historically, the word referred to a Christian hermit's total isolation from th ...

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

Family and education

Jeanne Le Ber was born in Ville-Marie (Montreal), on January 4, 1662. As a daughter of Jeanne Le Moyne and

Jacques Le Ber Jacques Le Ber ( c. 1633 – 25 November 1706) was a merchant and seigneur in Montreal, New France. In 1686 he was ennobled by Louis XIV and took the title Jacques Le Ber de Saint-Paul de Senneville, based on his hometown of Senneville-sur-F� ...

, Jeanne was raised within a wealthy and influential family; her mother was a sister of Charles Le Moyne. Jeanne Le Ber was baptized the day she was born by

Gabriel Souart Abbé Gabriel Souart ( 1611 – 8 March 1691) was a Sulpicien priest and the nephew of Father Joseph Le Caron. He is most often remembered in Canadian history as the first parish priest of Montreal. Souart entered the priesthood later in life, ...

Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve (15 February 1612 9 September 1676) was a French military officer and the founder of Fort Ville-Marie (modern day Montreal) in New France (Province of Quebec, Canada). Early life Maisonneuve was born in ...

being her godfather and

Jeanne Mance Jeanne Mance (November 12, 1606 – June 18, 1673) was a French nurse and settler of New France. She arrived in New France two years after the Ursuline nuns came to Quebec. Among the founders of Montreal in 1642, she established its first hospit ...

her godmother. She took an early interest in the spiritual life of the community and was a frequent visitor with her godmother,

at the

Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu ( en, hostel of God) was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris b ...

. She also had a friendship with

Marguerite Bourgeoys Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 162012 January 1700), was a French nun and founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal in the colony of New France, now part of Québec, Canada. Born in Troyes, she became part of a sodality, ministering ...

, the foundress of the

Congregation of Notre Dame The Congrégation de Notre Dame (CND) is a religious community for women founded in 1658 in Ville Marie (Montreal), in the colony of New France, now part of Canada. It was established by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who was recruited in France to create ...

, who influenced her spiritual life. To complete the formal education she spent three years, 1674 to 1677, as a boarder with the

Ursulines of Quebec The Ursuline Monastery of Quebec City (french: Monastère des Ursulines de Québec) was founded by a missionary group of Ursuline nuns in 1639 under the leadership of Mother Marie of the Incarnation, O.S.U. It is the oldest institution of learni ...

where her aunt, Marie Le Ber de l’Annonciation, taught. At the age of 15, she returned to her family in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. As the only daughter (she had three younger brothers) of Jacques Le Ber, with a

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

of approximately 50,000 écus, she was rightly considered the most eligible girl in

Reclusion

When she was eighteen, she obtained from her parents' permission to live as a recluse in her family home. Completely withdrawn from the world, she left her home only to go to Mass."Jeanne Le Ber, first recluse of North America!", Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum
/ref> When the sisters of the

decided to build a church on their property, Jeanne had a three-room apartment behind the altar built to her specifications, in return for a generous gift. Her amended vows, which covered perpetual seclusion, chastity, and poverty, had not caused her to divest herself of properties given to her by her family. Entrée en réclusion de Jeanne Le Ber

In November 1682 she refused to leave her cell to attend her dying mother and later refused to assume the management of the household for her widowed father. Her father,

Jacques le Ber Jacques Le Ber ( c. 1633 – 25 November 1706) was a merchant and seigneur in Montreal, New France. In 1686 he was ennobled by Louis XIV and took the title Jacques Le Ber de Saint-Paul de Senneville, based on his hometown of Senneville-sur-F� ...

, visited her twice a year. His request to be buried in the church of the sisters of the

to be near his daughter was granted, but Jeanne, to the disappointment of the curious, did not attend his funeral in 1706. On 24 June 1685 she took a simple vow of perpetual seclusion, chastity, and poverty. Her spiritual directors,

François Dollier de Casson François Dollier de Casson (1636 – 27 September 1701) was born in France into a wealthy bourgeois and military family. He began his adult life in the army which he left after three years to continue his studies and become a priest. After becom ...

and Seguenot, encouraged her to continue her pious observances. Her poverty and seclusion, however, were somewhat tempered by the fact that, befitting her social rank, she retained throughout her years of withdrawal from the world an attendant, her cousin Anna Barroy, who saw to her physical requirements and accompanied her to mass. Jeanne sewed and embroidered church vestments, made clothing for the most needy and provided for the schooling of disadvantaged young women. She became a well-known person in the colony, and met with important visitors upon occasion. At her death the remainder of her estate was willed to the sisters of the

. In 1698, Bishop Saint-Vallier, returning from France, accompanied two English gentlemen, one of them a Protestant minister, on a visit to her. She attended to a number of business matters, for she had not felt obliged by her vows to divest herself of her property. She ceded the farm at

Pointe Saint-Charles Pointe-Saint-Charles (also known in English as Point Saint Charles, and locally as The Point, or "PSC") is a neighbourhood in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Historically a working-class area, the creation of m ...

to the

Hôpital Général of the Charon brothers The Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, officially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God (abbreviated as O.H.), are a Catholic religious order founded in 1572. In Italian they are also known commonly as the Fatebenef ...

. The land of the former farm is today on the

Jeanne-Le Ber Jeanne-Le Ber was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. Its population in 2006 was 112,863. It was abolished for the 2015 election and dissolved into Ville-Marie� ...

federal electoral district. It was named for Jeanne Le Ber. Before the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

would canonize Jeanne Le Ber, it required that her buried remains be confirmed as hers. As Le Ber led the life of a recluse, she did little else other than pray and sew vestments and altar clothes until her death in 1714. The Church asked a team that included forensic anthropologist

Kathy Reichs Kathleen Joan Reichs (née Toelle, born 1950) is an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic. She is an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Early life and education Kathleen J ...

to verify what were thought to be Le Ber's bones. The team found that the teeth were notched as if they had regularly bitten thread. The bones were marked by arthritis, as the knees of a person who often kneeled to pray might be. Other notable features agreed with Le Ber's known age, establishing the bones were indeed hers.

Legacy

The

Recluse Sisters {{Unreferenced, date=November 2022 The Recluse Sisters (RM) are a Roman Catholic community of Religious Sisters who were founded in 1943, in Alberta, Canada, by Rita Renaud, Jeannette Roy and the Reverend Father Louis-Marie Parent, OMI, as Les Rec ...

were founded in 1943, in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Their inspiration is Jeanne Le Ber. In 2004, the

federal electoral district was named for Jeanne Le Ber.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Ber, Jeanne 1662 births 1714 deaths People of New France Canadian Servants of God 17th-century venerated Christians 17th-century Canadian nuns 18th-century Canadian nuns

Family and education

Reclusion

Legacy

See also

References