Sainte-Mélanie is a municipality in the Lanaudière

Lanaudière

Lanaudière is one of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada, situated immediately to the northeast of Montreal. It has a total population of 429,053 inhabitants.-Geography:...

 region of Quebec, Canada, part of the Joliette Regional County Municipality

Joliette Regional County Municipality, Quebec

300px|rightJoliette is a regional county municipality in southwest-central Quebec, Canada. The regional county seat is Joliette. The municipality has a land area of 416.285 km² and a 2006 census population of 58,354 inhabitants....

. It is located along the western shores of the L'Assomption River

L'Assomption River

The Assomption River is the most important waterway in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada, is over 200 km long, and has a drainage basin of 4220 km². Its source is the Mont Tremblant massif...

.

History

Sainte-Mélanie was formerly part of the territory of the Ailleboust Seignory

Seigneurial system of New France

The seigneurial system of New France was the semi-feudal system of land distribution used in the North American colonies of New France.-Introduction to New France:...

, granted to Jean d'Ailleboust d'Argenteuil (1694-1785) in 1736. By 1800, Pierre-Louis Panet

Pierre-Louis Panet

Pierre-Louis Panet was a lawyer, notary, seigneur, judge and political figure in Lower Canada.He was born in Montreal in 1761, the son of Pierre Panet. Panet qualified to practice as a lawyer in 1779 and as a notary in 1780. He practiced as a notary at Montreal from 1781 to 1783 and at Quebec City...

 (1761-1812) was Lord of Ailleboust, whose daughter Charlotte-Mélanie Panet (1794-1872) may have been the source of the name Sainte-Mélanie, also a reference to Melania the Younger

Melania the Younger

Saint Melania the Younger is a Christian saint and Desert Mother who lived during the reign of Emperor Flavius Augustus Honorius, son of Theodosius I. She is the paternal granddaughter of Melania the Elder.The Feast of Melania the Younger is held on December 31...

 (383-439). Charlotte-Mélanie's husband, Marc-Antoine-Louis Lévesque (1782-1833), donated the land in 1814 for a chapel that was eventually built in 1830. The Parish of Sainte-Mélanie was founded in 1832, and four years later in 1836, the post office opened under the name Daillebout.

The municipality officially started in 1845, was soon after abolished, and reestablished in 1855 as Sainte-Mélanie-d'Ailleboust. In 1881, the post office was renamed to Sainte-Mélanie, and more than a century later in 1986, the municipality followed suit by also adopting this shortened name.

Demographics

Population:

• Population in 2006: 2765 (2001 to 2006 population change: 5.0 %)
• Population in 2001: 2633
• Population in 1996: 2474
• Population in 1991: 2282

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 1165 (total dwellings: 1333)

Mother tongue:

• English as first language: 0.9 %
• French as first language: 97.8 %
• English and French as first language: 0 %
• Other as first language: 1.3 %

Notable Persons from Sainte-Mélanie

• Aimé Pelletier (1914-2010), surgeon and well-known Quebec novelist, under the nom de plume of Bertrand Vac
  Bertrand Vac
  Bertrand Vac was the nom de plume of Quebec novelist and surgeon Aimé Pelletier .-History:...
  
  . Pelletier, who spent the majority of his professional career in Montreal, is interred with his ancestors at the Sainte-Mélanie cemetery.