The Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal (; founded in 1645) was the first hospital established in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. ''

Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () 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 being the oldest an ...

'', literally translated in English as ''Hotel of God'', is an archaic French term for hospital, referring to the origins of hospitals as religious institutions. Its emergency room and function as an active hospital ended in 2017, and as of 2020 serves as a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

test site during the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal.

History

The origins of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal date to the arrival in 1642 of Paul Chomedey and a small party of French settlers on the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (, ) is an island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, which is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelag ...

to found the French colony of Ville-Marie. Among them was

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 hos ...

, the first nurse in

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, 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 Kingdom of Great Br ...

. She founded the hospital on October 8, 1645, as confirmed by letters patent of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in April 1669. In addition to returning to France to seek financial support for the hospital, in 1657 Mance recruited three sisters of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph (Religieuses hospitalières de Saint-Joseph) order of

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of Evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity, and obedience in the Enclosed religious orders, enclosure of a monastery or convent.' ...

to serve with her as staff. Their order was founded in 1636 by a layman, Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière, along with Mother Marie de la Fere ( fr), in La Fleche, France. Guillaume Bailly, a

Sulpician The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (; PSS), also known as the Sulpicians, is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, where it was founded. The members of the Society add the ...

missionary, is credited with drawing up the plans for the stone structure that was built in 1688. The hospital burned and was rebuilt three times between 1695 and 1734. After the conquest of New France by the British, for two centuries, it was the only

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

hospital in Montreal. Around 1850, the hospital became affiliated with the Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery. It continued to grow until 1861, when it was moved from

Old Montreal Old Montreal (, ) is a historic List of neighbourhoods in Montreal, neighbourhood within the List of municipalities in Quebec, municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is b ...

to its present site near

Mount Royal Mount Royal (, ) is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The city's name is derived from the mountain's name. The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentian M ...

. It had an affiliated nursing school between 1901 and 1970. In 1996, it became one of the three hospitals to make up the

Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal The (CHUM, , translated as University of Montreal Health Centre) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is a teaching institution affiliated with the French-language . The CHUM is one of the largest hospital ...

(CHUM), along with the

Hôpital Notre-Dame Hôpital Notre-Dame () is a hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on Sherbrooke Street East in the borough of Ville-Marie, across from La Fontaine Park. It was established in 1880, and has been at its present site since 1924. Ser ...

du CHUM and the

Hôpital Saint-Luc Hôpital Saint-Luc was a hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at the intersection of Saint Denis Street and René Lévesque Boulevard in the borough of Ville-Marie, Montreal, Ville-Marie. It was named in honor of Luke the Evangelist, who is the p ...

du CHUM. With the completion of the CHUM megahospital campus adjacent to Hôpital Saint-Luc in 2017, the Hôtel-Dieu's patients were moved to the new facility as of November 5, 2017. The Hôtel-Dieu was initially slated for closure, but ultimately remained open as a large-scale urgent care clinic until 2020. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal, the former hospital became home to one of Montreal's largest testing sites. The present site also contains a museum of the hospital's long history.

Medical achievements

During its history, many medical milestones have been recorded at the Hôtel-Dieu, including the world's first removal of a kidney (1868), the world's first removal of a tongue and jaw (1872), the first femur transplant (1959), the first identification of an AIDS patient in Canada (1979), the world's first successful recovery of a person with severe burns to 90% of the body (1981), and the world's first robotically assisted

laparoscopic Laparoscopy () is an operation performed in the abdomen or human pelvis, pelvis using small Surgical incision, incisions (usually 0.5–1.5 cm) with the aid of a camera. The laparoscope aids diagnosis or therapeutic interventions with a few ...

surgery (1993).

References

External links

354 years of history (Réligieuses hospitalières de Saint-Joseph)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel-Dieu De Montreal Hospitals in Montreal Defunct hospitals in Canada Hospital buildings completed in the 17th century Hospital buildings completed in 1861 Hospitals established in the 17th century Société Notre-Dame de Montréal Le Plateau-Mont-Royal 1645 establishments in the French colonial empire 1861 establishments in Canada East COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec 2017 disestablishments in Quebec Former Catholic hospitals Catholic hospitals in Canada

History

Medical achievements

References

Further reading

External links