The Irish standard., 1903-06-13
JEANNE JUGAN.
Brief Sketch of the First Little
Sister OF the Poor.

Jeanne .lungan was born in 1888.
Just When the Old state of things was
passing away in France. and all heads
were in Il whiri with new ideas, says
Edith Sellers in Aincmilian's. She
was the eldest daughter of i; peasant
farmer, Il thrifty, =uod-hcnrtcd man,
who lived III icttrS-CruiX. near Can
Gale, in Bretagn". AS :; child her
fHvori,c occupation was tending
sheep: she would wander about the
fields tn" Whole day long With some
for. even then. sh" had quite II special
tenderness for the unfortunate.
Although, even in her younger days
Jeanne wns sin%llnrly lacking in
beauty. size Won tile devoted love of
a man who i'm III respects WAS Il suit
able match. 1t Glanced. however. that
Il few months before the marriage
was to have tnl.rn place. Il priest held
IL mission at tanrair. and the burden
IF his preaching NiS the duty of Civ
ng Il helping hand to tho punr. His
sermons impressed .icAnn" wildly.
perhaps h"rnllsr in them wcr" put into
words ih" worry thoughts that had
lun@ been tloatinG about in an inco-
horert form in her own mind.
She had grown up with the poor
around her and had realized to the
full all the misery of their lot. Thus.
when this missionary came With his
stirring appeal. she wis all Ag!ow
with sympathy; and when he declared
that the work best worth doing in
this world WAS the work of helping the
| poor. she felt she would give her right
hand gladly to be able to do it. And
! before the mission WAS ended she had
firmly resolved that do it she would
nay, that the doing of it should be
the one business of her life. Had her
| friends and relatives known of it. they
would certainly have declared she
WAS mad.
For more than twenty years she led
$crvan With Il Mile. Lc Coz. Il charm
in- old lady, between whom and her
self IL llstin" friendship sprang up
Meanwhile. she WAS not wasting her
time. for She was going about among
the poor whose interests she had sc
kccnly ut heart. not only helping them
as far as she could. but learning t.
know them and finding out how best
they could be helped. ST. Scrvan was
Il povcrty-strickcn town in those days
and WAS throngcd With bcggarS
There was no refuge for these people
not even Il worihOusr. Beg they
must and mHny of them being decent
thrifty old folks. il is little wonder
,Icannc'S heart was Sorcly troubled: OF
that she came TO look upon tho aYcl
poor as Il class apart. even from the
poor.
When Mile. lie Con died She left lcl
|
Jeanne. In $40, she made the ac
quaintancc Of two young girls, Nir
@iuic Frcdanirl and Marie Janet. who
came to her for shelter for an OLE
lady. She found that the two girl.
were doing charity ut the suggestion
of the Able Lc PuIlicuX. Il youn:
),ol =, ~ u
among the poor ut st. Scrv;n. Jeanne
interviewed tho Able l.c Pallicur ant
Il strong bond of sympathy came NJ
between them. They held many con
situations. in the course of which III
insisted that the first thing to he don
towards mitigating tho great miser,
around them was to provide Il sleeping
place for the l,aupcrs. Jeanne prom
iscd to secure Il place although tn
.Ahbc warned her of all the ditlicu
ties to he cOntcndcd against.
Three old women were at once il,
stalled in her house. and SO man
more applied that larger hcaduuartel
| were il!b'UTtl. .\'NtI WIS tilt'Et SuIt
ly Il philantllropic undertaking TIN,
developed so rapidly from such II
humble beginning. Tho original plo
WAS that the old folks should 60 on
: III tho day ana beg their food but $
many annoyanccS and troubles 70
lowed that Jeanne .lu@nn and lie
: companions declared they would pr,
vide their charges with food rs we
) as beds. They did not ask for none,
only for scraps and ends. the remai,
ST the previous days meals. Whc
} first she went forth to beg. the Hon,
WAS face to face with ruin: had 81
not gone out. or had she rcturne
+, emptyhandcd. it must have closed il
J ] doors.