Note: For the next few weeks, I’ll be featuring women who were beatified or canonized in the 20th or 21st centuries.
The Basics: Born October 25, 1792, in France; died August 29, 1879, in France; canonized October 11, 2009, by Benedict XVI; feast day, August 30; woman religious.
The Story: Sometimes our crosses and sacrifices are writ large–
martyrdom and torture, for example. And sometimes, they come in personal injustices that we are called to shoulder and soldier on.
From the outside, Jeanne’s life was never easy. Her father died at sea before she turned four, and by her mid-teens, she was a kitchen maid. In that position, she saw great charity by her employer. She later was a hospital nurse, then a personal assistant, then a spinner. It was then, in her late forties, that she took in a destitute, disabled elderly woman. A second came, then a third. In just a few years, Jeanne managed to get the support needed to buy a dwelling to house forty elderly people and founded what would become the Little Sisters of the Poor, a community that goes door to door begging for the needs of the poor.
Jeanne was honored by the French Academy for her work, but shortly thereafter she faced a more personal trial. When she was fifty-one, the priest who oversaw the community overrode her re-election as superior. Jeanne went back out onto the streets to beg for nine years. Then, the priest, who had been named superior general, called Jeanne back to the motherhouse. She spent the final twenty-seven years of her life in prayer, without contact with any of the community’s benefactors or friends. Jeanne did not mount a challenge when the priest put a plaque on the convent door declaring himself the founder.
It was not until 1902, more than twenty years after Jeanne’s death, that the community’s true history, including her role as founder, was published.
Jeanne‘s Wisdom: “We are grafted into the cross and we must carry it joyfully unto death.”
What We Can Learn from Jeanne: Where are you being called to carry your cross with grace rather than complaints and whining?
To Learn More About Jeanne: Take a look at her biography on a U.S. Little Sisters of the Poor site, and consider attending an event or volunteering your services if you live near one of the congregation’s communities.
To Learn More About Other Women Saints and Blesseds: Come back next week, or consider buying my books, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from Our Sisters in Faith or Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration.
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