Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière
| Venerable Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière | |
|---|---|
A bust of de la Dauversière in La Flèche, France
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| Religious founder | |
| Born |
March 18, 1597 La Flèche, Maine, Kingdom of France |
| Died | November 6, 1659 (aged 62) La Flèche, Maine, Kingdom of France |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church (Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and the Diocese of Le Mans) |
Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière (18 March 1597 – 6 November 1659) was a French nobleman who spent his life in serving the needs of the poor. A founder of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, he also helped to establish the French colony of Montreal. Although a layman, as part of that objective, he was the founder of the Congregation of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, Religious Sisters dedicated to the care of the sick poor. He has been declared Venerable by the Catholic Church.
He was born in La Flèche in the ancient Province of Maine on 18 March 1597, the younger son of Jérôme le Royer, first seigneur of La Dauversière, a local tax collector, and of Renée (or Marie) Oudin. His family originated in Brittany.
Royer was one of the first pupils of the Jesuit Collège at La Flèche, founded in 1604 by King Henry IV of France. There he met Father Charles Lalemant, who had entered the Society of Jesus in 1607 and was ten years his senior, and also Father Paul Le Jeune, who had entered in 1613. In addition to the philosopher René Descartes, he had as fellow-students several of the great missionaries of New France, such as François Ragueneau, Claude Quentin, Charles Du Marché, and Jacques Buteux. With them, in 1614 he heard Father Énemond Massé speak of the Acadian missions, recently abandoned as a result of the English conquest.
Upon the death of his father in the summer of 1619, Royer inherited the estate “La Dauversière”, whence comes the title attached to his name, and his father's government post. He followed in his father's footsteps as a tax collector. In 1620 he married Jeanne de Baugé, with whom he had six children. Two of his sons would become priests, and both of his daughters became nuns.
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