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Little Sisters of the Poor Brought Ministry of Soon-To-Be Saint Jeanne Jugan to the World and to the Savannah Diocese

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Little Sisters of the Poor Brought Ministry of Soon-To-Be Saint Jeanne Jugan to the World and to the Savannah Diocese Thursday, September 24, 2009 FEATURE Southern Cross, Page 5 Little Sisters of the Poor brought ministry of soon-to-be Saint Jeanne Jugan to the world and to the Savannah Diocese hen Thomas McDonald, 71, walked Wthrough the double doors of the former residence for clergy of the Savannah Diocese on Perry and Drayton Streets—temporary home of the Little Sisters of the Poor—on a January day in 1890, he was the first of Savannah’s elderly poor to do so. He would not be the last. McDonald was, in a sense, a continuation of the ministry begun in France by Jeanne Jugan, a humble peasant woman, in 1839. Born on October 25,1792, at Cancale, Brittany, Jeanne was the sixth of eight children of Joseph and Marie Jugan. When Joseph, a fisherman, was lost at sea, his wife fought poverty to keep her family together. At 16, daughter Jeanne became kitchen maid to a viscountess who took her with her to visit the poor and the sick. At 25, Jeanne took a grueling job at an over- crowded hospital in Saint Servan. It was at Saint Servan, while living a life of prayer and dedication to God with several other women, that Jeanne brought an elderly, half-paralyzed Photo courtesy of the Diocesan Archives. blind woman home, giving up her own bed to her. Soon, other impoverished women, hearing An evening’s entertainment at the Little Sisters of the Poor Home in Savannah, ca. 1960. Among of Jeanne’s kindnesses, arrived at her doorstep. the visitors are Savannah Bishop Thomas J. McDonough and Fathers Terence Kernan, Andrew J. McDonald (now Bishop Emeritus of Little Rock) and J. Kevin Boland (now Bishop of Savannah). Jeanne and her companions set to work mending and washing clothes at night to obtain enough the Poor. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII approved the to Rome for Jeanne Jugan’s upcoming canoniza- money to care for them. In 1842, the first sisters constitution of the congregation. tion, but plans to view the ceremony on EWTN. took a vow of obedience and elected Jeanne A decade later, Father le Pailleur, cause of “Never forget that the poor are Our Lord,” Jugan Mother Superior. much of Jeanne Jugan’s anguish, was ordered Saint-to-be Jeanne Jugan, was fond of saying. Shortly afterwards, Father le Pailleur, a priest to Rome for a hearing. His office of Father At the time of her beatification in 1981, Pope who had helped set up the order, invalidated Superior General was rescinded and a histori- John Paul II stated, “God could glorify no more Jugan’s election and appointed another Superior. cal investigation ensued. In 1939, a study of humble servant than she.” Patron of the poor Jugan was told to confine her activities to the Little Sisters of the Poor confirmed and vulnerable elderly, Jugan—as Saint Jeanne begging for the poor. Eight years later, Jeanne Jugan as the order’s founder. Jugan—officially comes out of “retirement” on as Father Superior General, le Pailleur Her remains were transferred from October 11, 2009. “retired” Jeanne Jugan to the Mother the sisters’ cemetery at La Tour Saint House, allowing her only to pray and Pern to a small chapel beneath their Columnist RITA H. DELORME to oversee manual work of postulants. huge Gothic Chapel. Though she died is a volunteer in the Diocesan Humbly, Jeanne Jugan obeyed. Although in obscurity on August 29, 1879, Jeanne Archives. She can be reached she had received the French Academy’s Jugan’s order survives her, caring for at [email protected]. Montyn Award for her work with the Rita H. DeLorme 13,000 poor and elderly worldwide. poor, Jugan was—as the official Web She is to be canonized this October. site of the Little Sisters of the Poor notes— The Little Sisters of the Poor who welcomed “relegated to the shadows”. For years, Father le Thomas McDonald to their temporary home in Pailleur was credited with founding the Little Savannah in 1890 later built a large home on Sisters. East 37th Street where they cared for the city’s “We are grafted to the Cross and we must aged poor until 1971, when a shortage of sisters carry it joyfully until death,” Jeanne—in reli- mandated the facility’s closure. Now affiliated gion, Sister Marie of the Cross—reminded her with the Episcopal Church, the Little Sisters’ sisters. From 1852-1879, the year of her death, building has almost gone back to its “roots,” Jugan carried her cross of virtual banishment providing apartments for older people of limited without complaint. In 1854, Pope Pius IX grant- means. ed pontifical approbation of the Little Sisters of Another tie the Little Sisters have with the Savannah Diocese is Savannah-born Bishop Emeritus of Arkansas Andrew J. McDonald, TV Mass Schedule chaplain at Saint Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Palatine, Illinois. No relation to the sisters’ AUGUSTA first Savannah client, Bishop McDonald noted Sunday, 10:00 a.m. WAGT-TV in a recent letter that his sister, Josephine (the late Sister Celine of Saint Rose), was a Little SAVANNAH Sister of the Poor and served as an influence on Saturday, 6:00 p.m. Cable 7 Joan Raber, now Mother General Celine of the Sunday, 5:30 a.m. WTOC-TV Visitation, LSP. Bishop McDonald will not travel .
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