Hôtel-Dieu de Québec

Coordinates: 46°48′54.76″N 71°12′38.26″W / 46.8152111°N 71.2106278°W / 46.8152111; -71.2106278

Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec)

The main entrance of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital
Geography
Location 11, côte du Palais
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
G1R 2J6
Organisation
Care system Medicare
Hospital type Teaching hospital
Affiliated university Laval University
Services
History
Founded 1637
Links
Website

http://www.chuq.qc.ca/

Official name Hôtel-Dieu de Québec National Historic Site of Canada
Designated 1936

The Hotel-Dieu de Québec is a teaching hospital located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada and affiliated with Université Laval's medical school. It is part of the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec (CHUQ), a network of three teaching hospitals and several specialized institutions. Its areas of expertise include cancer treatment, kidney disease and cochlear implants. It has an affiliated research centre, the Centre de recherche de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.

This hospital was the first such facility in Canada, and the first in North America, north of Mexico.[1]

History

The hospital was officially founded in 1637 to meet the colony's need for healthcare by Marie-Madeleine de Vignerot, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon (1604-1675), a niece of Cardinal Richelieu. She entrusted the task to the Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus, commonly referred as Hospitaller Sisters, due to their vocation as nurses.

Three young canonesses left their monastery in Dieppe, on the coast of the English Channel, and arrived in New France on 1 August 1639 with the goal of opening the hospital.<ref name=VQ /[2] They were Mothers Marie de Saint-Ignace Guenet, Marie de Saint-Bonaventure Forestier and Anne de Saint-Bernard Le Cointre.[3]

The canonesses established the hospital at its first site in 1640, in what was then the village of Sillery. In keeping with the wishes of the Duchess, their care was directed to the people of the First Nations. Dwellings were built near the hospital for the native people to facilitate their care. By 1644, however, they had to abandon the site due to repeated attacks by Iroquois warriors, and the community moved to the town of Quebec.[4]

There the canonesses acquired the site and built the hospital that still stands. Serving the French colonists after that point, it became the leading medical institution for the care of the people of the city.

A new hospital for the poor was built in 1693 by Jean-Baptiste de Saint-Vallier, the second Bishop of Quebec, known as the Hôpital-Général de Québec. Initially four canonesses were sent to help in running the hospital. The bishop formally entrusted it to the canonesses of the Hôtel-Dieu in 1698, and the Sisters who served there became an independent monastery in 1701.[5]

The hospital was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1936.[6] The Hôtel-Dieu continued to be operated by the Augustinian canonesses until 1962.

References

  1. ↑ "The Augustinian Sisters and Québec City's Hôtel-Dieu". Government of Canada. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Répertoire des toponymes - Fiche toponymique: Hôtel-Dieu, rue de l'". Ville de Québec (in French). Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "Les Augustines de la Miséricorde de Jésus de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec". Corporation de patrimoine et du tourisme religieux de Québec (in French). Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "Répertoire des toponymes - Fiche toponymique: Hospitalières, rue des". Ville de Québec (in French). Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Répertoire des toponymes - Fiche toponymique: Récollets, rue des". Ville de Québec (in French). Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  6. ↑ Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 2012-03-03.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.