OCTOBER 25, 1792, CANCALE, FRANCE
It was in Cancale, during the French revolution, that a baby girl was born, whose name would be one day known world wide.When Jeanne Jugan came into the world her father, a fisherman who had gone to sea six months earlier to Newfoundland, was absent. She was baptised the same day.
When Jeanne was still very young, her father was lost at sea. For Jeanne’s mother, times were hard but she did not neglect her spiritual duties and she taught her children to pray.

Jeanne went to work as a servant and kitchen-maid at a nearby manor house.

A special call
Aged eighteen, Jeanne refused her first proposal of marriage to a young sailor. When, six years later, he renewed his request Jeanne replied
“God wants me for himself, he is keeping me for a work which is not yet founded ….”
Jeanne left Cancale and went to work as a nurse in Saint Servan. Aged twenty-five she joined a lay association founded by St Jean Eudes

1839 - The start
After many years of hard work, the incredible thing happened, the founding gesture from which the Little Sisters of the Poor were born.

One winter’s evening in 1839, Jeanne opened her home and her heart to an elderly, half paralysed blind old women, who was in desperate need. Jeanne carried her home and gave up her own bed, herself sleeping on a straw mattress in the attic.

This act committed her forever and it was not long before Jeanne and her companions were caring for numerous old people in similar states of poverty and destitution.

1843 - Injustice struck!
Jeanne was deposed as Foundress by an eccentric priest. Jeanne’s silence is eloquent. She lived in obscurity at the noviciate at La Tour St Joseph (near Rennes, France) from 1852 until her death in 1879. It was not until 1902 that the truth became known.

Today in 31 countries, on five continents, Jeanne continues through her daughters the Little Sisters of the Poor, to serve older people in a family atmosphere, with dignity and respect until the end of their days.