SAINT FOR THE MONTH
Foundress of the
Congregation of St. Anne de la Providence
Feast: August 17
(1666-1736)
JEANNE DELANOUE was born in Saumur, in
the valley of Loire River, on June 18, 1666. She was the youngest
in a family of twelve. Her parents owned a business near the
sanctuary of Notre-Dame-des-Ardilliers. Although but six years of
age when her father died, she helped her mother run the store to
maintain the family. Her qualities were remarkable: she was
skillful, energetic, and indefatigable, to the point of keeping the
store open on Sundays and holy days.
The future was hers. Her "business" was growing and prospering. It
was precisely within this context of success that, at the age of
27, shortly after the death of her mother, an elderly woman, a
faithful pilgrim to the shrine of Notre Dame-des-Ardilliers,
invited Jeanne to consecrate herself to the many poor people of her
neighborhood.
Despite the responsibilities she had accrued, in response to this
call which she believed to have come from GOD, Jeanne turned toward
the poor. They assumed more of her time each day than did her
clients until finally they became her full-time occupation. Within
a short time no longer did the poor await her visits to them, but
they came to her. In 1700, she warmly welcomed a child into her
home, and soon after she took in the sick, the aged, and the
destitute.
With so many needing lodging, the only place for the poor were the
grottos hollowed out in the tuff. She made them as comfortable as
she could, however it was necessary for her to seek help. Within
four years, in 1704, some young girls were interested in helping
Jeanne and were even willing to wear a religious habit if she
wished them to do so. It was thus that the congregation of
Sainte-Anne de la Providence was born. Under this name the
constitutions were approved in 1709.
Jeanne Delanoue's tenacity, supported by the dedicated women who
worked with her, brought about the foundation of Saumur's first
home for the poor in 1715. Very quickly her charity spread beyond
the limits of Saumur and of her diocese. More than that, already
there were forty helpers who were under her direction and who had
made the decision to follow her example of self-sacrifice, of
prayer, and of mortification.
At her death, August 17, 1736, Jeanne Delanoue left a dozen
communities, as well as homes for the poor and schools. "The saint
is dead", they said in Saumur.
Everyone could admire her zeal and the work she accomplished in the
numerous visits she received and made, but only her closest friends
knew about her mortification, her life of prayer and of union with
GOD. It is from this that her untiring charity proceeded. She was
attracted toward all those who suffer, but especially those who are
poor - and GOD knows they were many during those sad years of want,
of cold, of famine and of war.
The Sisters of Jeanne Delanoue, as they simply call themselves
today, number about 400 sisters in France, in Madagascar, and in
Sumatra, where they began in 1979.
On November 5, 1947
Pope Pius XII beatified Jeanne Delanoue. And on October 31, 1982
Pope John Paul II singled out for the people of GOD yet another
saint, Saint Jeanne Delanoue.