The love of the poor in the spirituality of Jeanne Jugan

Abstract

This dissertation is about the love of the Poor in the Spirituality of Jeanne Jugan, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor. It is a study on how Jeanne succeeded to see the suffering Jesus in the poor and infirm people through her complete abandonment in God. Chapter 1 of this dissertation is about the main elements of Jeanne's life. We see her birth and her upbringing. In her adulthood she founded the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Chapter 2 concerns mainly the analysis of the main aspects of Jeanne's spirituality. She invites us "to share in the beatitude of spiritual poverty, leading us towards that radical dispossession which surrenders a soul to God". Chapter 3 shows how Jeanne still lives in our own times through the Little Sisters of the Poor who follow Jeanne's example in caring for the poor by self-renunciation. Reference is also given to recent documents of the Church; the contents of which Jeanne had already lived as a faithful daughter of the Church. My aim was not to show the glory of Jeanne. I want to present Jeanne's apostolic message which is very relevant for our times. The Holy Spirit had blessed her with a prophetic intuition of the needs and desires of the aged people.