1. Jeanne Jugan, religious name Mary of the Cross, was a French religious sister who became known for the dedication of her life to the neediest of the elderly poor.
16 Facts About Jeanne Jugan
1. 2.
Jeanne Jugan's service resulted in the establishment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the elderly who have no other resources throughout the world.
3.
Jeanne Jugan has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
4.
Jeanne Jugan grew up during the political and religious upheavals of the French Revolution.
5.
Jeanne Jugan's mother struggled to provide for the young Jeanne and her siblings, while providing them secretly with religious instruction amid the anti-Catholic persecutions of the day.
6.
Jeanne Jugan worked as a shepherdess while still very young, and learned to knit and spin wool.
7.
Jeanne Jugan told her mother that God had other plans, and was calling her to "a work which is not yet founded".
8.
Jeanne Jugan worked as a nurse in the town hospital of Saint-Servan for six years, until she left the hospital due to her own health issues.
9.
Jeanne Jugan then worked for 12 years as the servant of a fellow member of the Eudist Third Order, until the woman's death in 1835.
10.
Jeanne 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.
11.
Jeanne Jugan 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.
12.
From this act of charity, with the approval of her colleagues, Jeanne Jugan then focused her attention upon the mission of assisting abandoned elderly women, and from this beginning arose a religious congregation called The Little Sisters of the Poor.
13.
Jeanne Jugan wrote a simple Rule of Life for this new community of women, and they went door-to-door daily requesting food, clothing and money for the women in their care.
14.
Jeanne Jugan was much sought after whenever problems arose and worked with religious and civil authorities to seek help for the poor.
15.
Le Pailleur was investigated and dismissed in 1890, and Jeanne Jugan came to be acknowledged as their foundress.
16.
Jeanne Jugan died in 1879, aged 86, and was buried in the graveyard of the General Motherhouse at Saint-Pern.