Saint Jeanne Jugan founded the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1839 in France. The order is now worldwide, serving the elderly in 31 countries. Jeanne Jugan was born on October 25, 1792, and died August 29, 1879. Saint Jeanne Jugan was the sixth of the eight children of Joseph and Marie Jugan. She grew up during the political and religious upheavals of the French Revolution. Her father was lost at sea and presumed dead just four years after she was born. Her mother struggled to provide for her and her siblings while also providing them with religious instruction amid the anti-Catholic persecutions of the day. Have you ever heard of Saint Jeanne Jugan?
Biography of Saint Jeanne Jugan
Saint Jeanne Jugan was a shepherd as a young lady, and she learned to knit and spin wool. She could barely read and write. When she was 16, she took a job as the kitchen maid of the Viscountess de la Choue. At age 18, and again six years later, she declined marriage proposals from the same man. She told her mother that God had other plans and was calling her to “a work which is not yet found.”
At age 25, the young woman became an Associate of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, founded by John Eudes. Saint Jeanne Jugan also worked as a nurse in the town hospital of Saint-Servan for six years, until she left the hospital due to her health issues. She then worked for 12 years as the servant of a fellow member of the Eudist Third Order, until the woman died in 1835. These experiences were foundational to her. It is not surprising that she knew a saint or suffered from ill health.
In the winter of 1839, Saint Jeanne Jugan met Anne Chauvin, an elderly woman who was blind, partially paralyzed, and had no one to care for her. Jugan carried her home to her apartment and took her in from that day forward, letting the woman have her bed while she slept in the attic. She soon took in two more old women in need of help, and by 1841, she had rented a room to provide housing for a dozen elderly people. The following year, she acquired an unused convent building that could house 40 of them, and the Little Sisters of the Poor were born.
Saint Jeanne Jugan died in 1879, at the age of 86. She was beatified in Rome by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 1982, and canonized on October 11, 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI. He said, “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.” Today, pilgrims can visit the house where she was born, the House of the Cross at Saint-Servan, and the motherhouse where she lived her last 23 years at La Tour Saint Joseph in Saint-Pern.
The Little Sisters of the Poor have a Peace Residence in Queens Village, New York, and established the Jeanne Jugan Award, which is presented to the staff member who best exemplifies the Saint Jeanne Jugan spirit. That is a good way to carry on her legacy even to this day. Coupled with the fact that pilgrims can visit the shire of her birthplace, this is all special.
Conclusion
Saint Jeanne Jugan was a somewhat obscure French Nun who founded a global order. That order, The Little Sisters of the Poor have cared for thousands of infirm senior citizens. When one thinks of Jesus’ admonition to care for the elderly, it is clear the Little Sisters of the Poor are doing the Lord’s work. From humble beginnings in France, established almost by accident, the order has ascended to global heights.
