By declaring Jeanne Jugan, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, to be a saint, the Church is proclaiming her holiness. The Little Sisters are well known for their care homes all over the world, where older people are cared for with dignity, respect and love. But Jeanne Jugan remains in the shadows.Her story is extraordinary.A person of great energy and drive, she began the work by taking an abandoned old woman into her own home, and quickly found new premises and gathered a community around her.The work flourished and homes were established in several cities. But then Jeanne was removed from the leadership of the order she had founded.Without complaint or bitterness she allowed herself to be stripped of what was dearest to her – her work. Jeanne is offered as an example to us not because she suffered humiliation and injustice but because of the way she lived her humiliation and injustice – not retreating into herself, but rising up towards God,“blossoming like a rose”, and so enabling the luminous work of God to be seen in her, in all its purity and radiance.
