Quebec had a seminary, a hospital, and a convent, before it possessed a population.
The foundation of Montreal was still more exclusively religious.

The accounts of the Jesuits had inflamed pious souls with a noble emulation; a Montreal association was formed, under the direction of M.Olier, founder of St.Sulpice.

The first expedition was placed under the command of a valiant gentleman, Paul de Maisonneuve, and of a certain Mademoiselle Mance, belonging to the middle class of Nogent-le-Roi, who was not yet a nun, but who was destined to become the foundress of the hospital-sisters of Ville-Marie, the name which the religious zeal of the explorers intended for the new colony of Montreal.
It was not without jealousy that the governor of Quebec and the agents of the hundred associates looked upon the enterprise of M.de Maisonneuve; an attempt was made to persuade him to remain in the settlement already founded.

"I am not come here to deliberate, but to act," answered he; "it is my duty, as well as an honor to me, to found a colony at Montreal, and I shall go, though every tree were an Iroquois!" On the 16th of May, 1642, the new colonists had scarcely disembarked when they were mustered around Father Vimont, a Jesuit, clothed in his pontifical vestments.

The priest, having first celebrated mass, turned to those present.