Jeanne de Lestonnac was born on December 27, 1556 at Bordeaux to the noble Lestonnac family. Her maternal uncle was Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592, famous French Renaissance philosopher-essayist, author of the Essais).
In 1573 (at 17), Jeanne married Gaston de Montferrand, Baron of Landiras. The marriage produced seven children.
On Gaston's death in 1597, the widowed Jeanne undertook the Cistercian religious vocation at the Abbey of Toulouse — but left after 15 months due to health.
In 1607, at the age of 51, Jeanne founded the Company of Mary Our Lady (Filles de Notre-Dame) at Bordeaux — under the direction of Jesuits Fathers Jean de Bordes SJ and Raymond de Bonneau SJ. The Company of Mary Our Lady became the French Catholic teaching congregation dedicated to the free education of girls — in institutional parallel with St. Alix Le Clerc's contemporaneous Congregation of Notre-Dame at Nancy (see her entry).
Jeanne served as first Superior of the Company of Mary Our Lady until her death in 1640. Under her governance, the Company expanded to multiple daughter houses across Aquitaine and southwestern France.
She died at Bordeaux on February 2, 1640 at the age of 83.