Editorial
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and the Founding of Montreal
The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated. Radiant sunshine bathed the Island of Montreal on the morning of May 18th, 1642. The hawthorns and wild cherry trees were in blossom and the meadow, where a group of French colonists had set up an altar, was dotted with trilliums and violets. Father Vimont celebrated mass, and declared that the new settlement, which they called Ville-Marie, was "only a grain of mustard seed... I have no doubt that this small seed will produce a tall tree that will bring forth wonders some day."