Anne de Melun

[1] Anne was born in a castle near Mons, on 18 February 1619, the daughter of Guillaume de Melun, Prince of Espinoy, and Ernestine of Arenberg.

One of these, Isabelle-Claire, joined the chapter of Sainte-Aldegonde in Maubeuge; another, Madeleine, became a canoness of St Waltrude (1644); the third died young.

After trying her vocation in a number of places, in 1650 she settled at Baugé, in the duchy of Anjou, where Marthe de Peausse's attempt to found a hospital had foundered for lack of funds.

Anne provided the sums needed to finish the hospital and set up an association of charitable ladies to run it.

She lived in obscurity as a "servant of the poor" until 1663, when the division of the estates that had been restored to the family necessitated her to undertake a journey to Paris, Picardy and Flanders.