This new church, the original Notre Dame de Pitié, witnessed, on August 5th of 1695, a curious and reverent ceremony—the enclosing of a recluse in a little room behind the altar. This was none other than Jeanne LeBer, the daughter of the rich trader, Jacques LeBer, of Montreal, who was a brother of Jean LeBer du Chesne, wounded mortally at Prairie la Madeleine. She was now in her thirty-third year, being born on January 4, 1662. After her school days at Quebec were ended in 1677, she led an austere life—practically that of an enclosed nun, in her own home—scarcely seeing anyone, not even her parents—and this with her parents' permission. This craving for solitude is hard to understand for moderns, and we tell the story to give an indication of the intense religious faith of those days. Autre temps, autres moeurs.
In 1693 Jeanne LeBer promised to build the church, as said, if she were to be received as a sister of the congregation and allowed a cell behind the altar. "She wished the church to be as near as possible a reproduction of the holy house of Nazareth, oblong in shape, with the altar placed in the most conspicuous part, between the doors opening right and left. Her apartment, behind the altar, was to be about ten or twelve feet in depth, consisting of three stories. The first was to be a vestry; the second and third reserved for her use."
MADAME LEBER
"On the evening of August 5th, solemn vespers were chanted in the parish church, after which a procession was formed, headed by the clergy. It wended its way to M. LeBer's house, where Jeanne was absorbed in prayer. She wore a woolen gown of light grey, confined to the waist by a black belt. Quitting forever the home of her childhood, breaking asunder the last and closest ties that bound her to earth, she followed the clergy accompanied by her father and several other relatives. It was a striking scene. Along the crowded street they passed: the recluse, clad in penitential garb, with downcast eyes, quiet bearing and firm step; and the white-haired man, bowed down by age and sorrow, who seemed, like Abraham and Jeptha, to be leading the victim to sacrifice. Scarce had the procession reached the church before Jacques LeBer, no longer master of his anguish, turned back and went to hide his grief in the now deserted home. [153]
"Dollier de Casson blessed the cell, and as she knelt before him, exhorted Jeanne LeBer to persevere therein like Magdalen in the Grotto. He then led her to the threshold and she calmly passed into her new abode, closing and fastening the door while the choir chanted the litany of the Blessed Virgin. The following morning, Feast of the Transfiguration, Dollier de Casson celebrated mass for the first time in the Congregation Church. Among the faithful knelt M. LeBer, strong in his heroic resignation." [154] She lived in that cell for nineteen years, until her death in October, 1714.
Between 1692 and 1694 another block of buildings, consisting of a residence and flanked by a public church and a private chapel, was being erected by the Jesuits, now returning. Its site is today covered by a portion of the city hall and the Court of Justice of Notre Dame Street, facing Jacques Cartier Square. These buildings of the Jesuits were destroyed by fire in 1803. [155]
We have to take notice of a new community that is now arising. It is that of the Recollects, so long absent from the neighbourhood of Montreal. The letters patent of the king confirming their permission to continue their establishments at Quebec, Montreal, Plaisance (Newfoundland) and the Isle of St. Peter, and to extend them to other places with the consent of the governor, were issued from Versailles in March, 1692. By 1694 they had their church built, and this, with their monastery and farm, occupied the large space now covered by Notre Dame Street from St. Peter to McGill streets and extending south. The street called Recollect today marks their home, and between this and the corner of McGill and Notre Dame streets was the western gate of the city, known as that of the "Recollects."