Mass celebrates canonization of St. Jeanne Jugan

Sister Judith Meredith, superior of the Little Sisters of the Poor at the St. Augustine Home for the Aged in Indianapolis, reads the general intercessions during a Mass of Thanksgiving for the Oct. 11 canonization of St. Jeanne Jugan on Oct. 25 at St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Joy was visible in the shining eyes and beautiful smiles of the Little Sisters of the Poor and the elderly residents of the St. Augustine Home for the Aged as they celebrated the Oct. 11 canonization of St. Jeanne Jugan during a Mass of Thanksgiving on Oct. 25 at St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis.

And “JOY”—which stands for “Jesus, others and yourself”—exemplifies the way that the 2,700 Little Sisters throughout the world humbly live out their religious vocation by lovingly and respectfully serving the elderly men and women who spend their final years on Earth in their homes.

As the residents near their time of death, the Little Sisters and Association Jeanne Jugan lay volunteers take turns sitting quietly by their bedsides, holding their hands, attending to their needs, listening to their concerns, praying the Our Father and decades of the rosary, singing hymns, and lovingly passing the hours with them until they go home to God and enter into eternal life.

St. Jeanne Jugan, whose religious name was Sister Mary of the Cross, founded the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1839 in France to care for the elderly poor who had no one to love them.

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, the principal celebrant for the Mass, spoke of the saint’s devotion to God, humble service to the poor and love for the elderly during his homily.

“It was a great day for our Church, indeed for our local Church, as she [St. Jeanne Jugan] was canonized [by Pope Benedict XVI] in Rome on the 11th [day] of this month,” he said. “I was impressed to learn that a resident of every one of the Little Sisters’ homes for the aged around the world was chosen to be present for the canonization. Only one Little Sister was chosen by lot to be present from your local community. The gesture symbolized the respect you consecrated daughters of St. Jeanne have for the aged residents under your loving care.”

In different places in the Gospels, the archbishop explained, “Jesus emphasizes our duty to love and to do so with simplicity and humility. Perhaps one of the most familiar recent witnesses of the simple love that is our mission of charity is Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Less familiar to many but, we have learned, equally admirable is the witness of St. Jeanne Jugan. … I think of St. Jeanne as someone so like Mother Teresa.”

Commending the Little Sisters for their ministry of love, Archbishop Buechlein noted that “the reverence and respect and love [that] Mother Jugan’s daughters offer the aged residents who might otherwise have been abandoned in lonely poverty is truly a significant gift to the mission of our Church.”

The Little Sisters of the Poor are “witnesses of hope in a society that longs for hope,” Archbishop Buechlein said. “Genuine hope is rooted in faith. Genuine hope is found in the provident love of God.”

Christ is the “true light,” he said, and we are called to be “lights of hope” in the world.

Like the daughters of St. Jeanne Jugan, Archbishop Buechlein said, “let’s go forward and continue on a journey of hope … by faithfully proclaiming the word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and exercising our ministry of charity.”

Thirteen priests concelebrated the Mass of Thanksgiving, including Father Noah Casey, the pastor of St. Luke Parish.

At the conclusion of the liturgy, Sister Judith Meredith, the superior of the Little Sisters of the Poor at the St. Augustine Home for the Aged, told the gathering of sisters, residents, volunteers and benefactors that “Jeanne Jugan often said, ‘Be kind to the elderly. Treat them well. Yes, be kind because in serving them it is Jesus Christ himself whom you are serving.’ This is the privileged work that we do at [the] St. Augustine Home.”

Expressing the Little Sisters’ “spirit of gratitude,” Sister Judith presented a medal of St. Jeanne Jugan to the archbishop.

Twenty-five Little Sisters of the Poor from their homes in Indianapolis, Evansville, Cincinnati and Louisville participated in the Oct. 25 Mass of Thanksgiving for the canonization of their foundress.

Currently, 11 Little Sisters serve 94 residents at the St. Augustine Home for the Aged.

During a reception at the home after the liturgy, Sister Judith said St. Jeanne Jugan is a wonderful inspiration to the Little Sisters.

“She is such an example to us,” Sister Judith said. “The canonization is wonderful, and the fact that the Church is recognizing her as a saint is wonderful. But what it means to me is how her life—the way she lived her life, and her spiritual life and her deep union with our Lord, and how she was able to accept humiliation and suffering—is a real witness and example to me in my own life of what is really important. And what really is important is not to be important, to think of yourself as just one of God’s servants doing whatever good is accomplished.”

St. Jeanne Jugan always gave credit to the Lord, Sister Judith said. “She always said, ‘Blessed be God’ or ‘Thank you, my God’ or ‘Glory be to God.’ We’re only his instruments.”

Mary Ann Phelan, an Association Jeanne Jugan member and resident of the St. Augustine Home, was one of the pilgrims from Indianapolis at the canonization Mass in Rome.

“The highlight of the entire trip for me was the morning when we were sitting outside at the Vatican listening to the pope make Jeanne Jugan a saint,” she said. “This overwhelming feeling came over me—first of all, of how grateful I was to be able to be there to witness such an extraordinary event, and second of how grateful I am to live at the home with the Little Sisters of the Poor. Without St. Jeanne Jugan, there would be no Little Sisters of the Poor and there would be no homes for those of us to live in who need them. I just felt such gratitude and such joy and an overwhelming feeling of the beauty of it all.” †