The original founders of the organization were Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, Jean-Jacques Olier and Pierre Chevrier.

Marie-Madeleine de Vignerot, the Duchess of Aiguillon, a strong lay leader of the Catholic Church, was a proponent of foreign missionaries.

[2] A friend of Chevrier, Jean-Jacques Olier, future founder of the Seminary of St-Sulpice also expressed great interest in the project, donating a hundred pistoles to de la Dauversière and telling him to "commence the work of God.

The King of France, Louis XIII, in recognizing the cessation of the Island of Montreal to the Society, also named de Maisonneuve the Governor of the settlement and granted him the right to use artillery and other munitions of war.

De Maisonneuve and Chevrier were then jointly tasked with the provision of equipment, rations, munitions, skilled workers, and soldiers needed for the colony.

Given the recent Iroquois threat and the coming frost, de Maisonneuve decided to suspend the founding of Ville Marie until next spring, spending the winter in Ste-Foye with his crew.

The next morning they made their landing at La Place Royale, an islet at the mouth of the stream which Samuel de Champlain had previously designated as a safe haven.

Huron survivors of the attack fled before the onslaught and "passed by Ville Marie on their way to safety at Quebec – a sinister omen of things to come.

As historian Henri Béchard writes, later, de Maisonneuve told the founder of Montreal, "had the Iroquois passed by the hospital before these men found refuge in it, they would have plundered, burnt it, and captured Mademoiselle Mance.

[17] When Governor Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve learned of the attack, he sent a relief party led by Charles Le Moyne to reinforce security in the area.

From this moment on, "the French were constantly harassed by the Iroquois and they no longer dared venture more than a few feet from their log-houses without their muskets, their pistols and swords.

Despite suffering the loss of eight men during the voyage, on 16 November, Saint Nicolas de Nantes reached Ville-Marie with approximately 95 recruits, the .

"[23] This so-called "second founding of Montreal" is historically recognized as the rebuilding of the Ville-Marie settlement by members of the Society of Notre Dame after countless Iroquois attacks.

"We now come to a year which Montreal ought to mark in red letters on its calendar, on an account of the various losses sustained on several different occasions",[24] wrote François Dollier de Casson in his memoirs in the fall of 1659.

This concluded the ambitious religious project originally envisioned and funded by Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière and his followers.

[24] Resources were dauntingly low and money was quickly running out during a time when the Native raids called for a formidable resistance by the Frenchmen.

Lambert Closse, de Maisonneuve's first lieutenant, was ambushed and murdered on February 6, 1662, an event recognized by Montrealers as a major blow to the Society of Notre Dame.

[26] This style of guerilla warfare struck fear in both villagers and soldiers of Ville-Marie, as attacks were unexpected and relentless as explicitly described in Dollier de Casson's manuscripts.

[29] The Society of Notre Dame "managed to keep their settlement unconquered by the Iroquois for twenty-three years, all while increasing tenfold its population, its resources, and its strength.

"[30] Despite the devastating failure of the overambitious mission of the Society, they laid the foundation for what would grow into the largest trading settlement in Canada, and established Christianity in the most impossible conditions.