The original vocation of the Hospices de Beaune was that everything should be done to ensure that indigent patients were welcomed, fed, and cared for at the expense of the Hôtel-Dieu until they had regained their health or were in convalescence. Every morning, white bread was given to the poor who asked for alms in front of the hospital door. The charity mission initiated by Nicolas Rolin to affirm his piety and earn his salvation began on January 1, 1452, with the reception of the first patient at the Hôtel-Dieu of Beaune. His vocation lasted until the beginning of the 1980s within the historic site of the Hospices de Beaune. It has since been resumed at the Beaune hospital center, one of the entities of the city's Hospices Civils (Civil Hospices).