Saint Jeanne Jugan, Virgin and Foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor

August 30th, the Church celebrates Saint Jeanne Jugan, (1792-1879) also known as, Mary of the Cross, a French religious remembered for her dedication to the elderly indigent, who founded the Little Sisters of the Poor. She was born in Cancale, Brittany, (France) the sixth of eight children of Joseph and Marie Jugan. Due to the religious persecution of the French Revolution. Jugan was catechized and attended Mass in secret. To support her indigent family, she worked as a shepherdess. Later, she became a domestic servant to the Viscountess de la Choue, a devout Catholic. When the viscountess visited the sick and the needy, Jugan would accompany her.She declined the marriage proposals of several potential suitors saying that God was calling her to, "a work which is not yet founded." At 25, she entered the Third Order of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary founded by Saint John Eudes. During this period, she worked as a hospital nurse and tended to a fellow member of the Eudist Third Order, until the woman's death. Along with two other women, Jugan rented a room and devoted herself to prayer and helping the old and the sick.One night, during the winter of 1839, Jugan met Anne Chauvin, a blind, elderly woman with no one to care for her. Jugan carried Chauvin home, giving the woman her bed. Jugan resolved that the rest of her life would be dedicated to helping abandoned elderly. She would take in two more women within the month. Eventually Jugan was providing shelter and medical care to a dozen needy women. In 1841, she acquired an unused convent building that could accommodate 40.Juan established four additional homes in Saint-Servan, Dinan, Tours, and Angers. Many young women joined her. By 1850, the Little Sisters of the Poor had over 100 members. In 1852, the Bishop of Rennes formally acknowledged the Congregation, naming Father Le Pailleur the Superior General of the Order. Fr. Le Pailleur’s first act was to consign Jugan to the Motherhouse for a retirement that was to last the rest of her life.For the next 27 years, Jugan continued to serve the order through tireless prayer and by accepting the trial and abasement permitted by God. She died peacefully on Aug. 29, 1879. At the time of her death, she was not acknowledged as the foundress of her order. In the fullness of time, thanks in part to her cause of canonization, was finally honored for her life of heroic virtue. It is said that upon meeting Jugan, Charles Dickens said, "there is in this woman something so calm, and so holy, that in seeing her I know myself to be in the presence of a superior being. Her words went straight to my heart, so that my eyes, I know not how, filled with tears."St. Jeanne Jugan was beatified by Saint John Paul II on October 3, 1982, and canonized on October 11, 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI, who said of her, "In the Beatitudes, Jeanne Jugan found the source of the spirit of hospitality and fraternal love, founded on unlimited trust in Providence, which illuminated her whole life." God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured.