IFTTT Autopost 
Jeanne Delanoue was born the youngest of twelve children in Saumur, France on June 8, 1666. Her parents ran a shop close to the shrine of Notre-Dame-des-Ardilliers. Jeanne’s father sold cloth and dry goods, but he died when she was only six.
Jeanne helped her mother run the shop selling religious items to pilgrims that visited the area. When Jeanne was twenty-five, her mother died, and Jeanne took over the family’s business. Not only did she run the shop, but she also provided lodging for the pilgrims. She was skillful as a businessperson and kept the business open on Sundays and holy days, something that was not usual in those days in France. According to her biographers, Jeanne was not a very religious person as a youth.
On Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1693, a poor widowed woman from Rennes predicted that one day, Jeanne would find herself devoted to caring for the poor. Jeanne was skeptical, but in time, she found the prophesy coming true increasingly every day.
Soon, she was visiting the poor in her area, and she closed the family business to commit herself fully to serving those in need.
Her house was located near the Loire River and had caves and cellars like those used by wine merchants to store wine. In these caves and cellars, she provided a safe place for the sick, age, orphans, and poor. In 1703, an earthquake destroyed her home, but she found another and continued her work.
In 1704, other women who shared Jeanne’s vision of helping the needy joined her. This group became the nucleus of a new religious community that she called the Sisters of Saint Anne of Providence of Saumur.
Among those who encouraged Jeanne and her companions was Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, a priest noted for his superb preaching.
Jeanne also founded Providence House that cared for about one-hundred people during the famine of 1709. That same year, the bishop of Angers approved the constitution of her new religious community. In religious life, she was known as Sister Joan of the Cross.
In 1715, the Sisters established the first home for the poor in Saumur, and the community continued to expand.
When she died on August 17, 1736, at Fencet, France, there were twelve communities of the order spread throughout France serving the poor and needy. One of her sayings was, “The poor and the Lord are all one.”
Jeanne Delanoue was canonized in October 1982. Saint Jeanne Delanoue’s feast day is August 17.
Her order’s official name was changed to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne of Providence on December 3, 1964, and by 2021, it was serving in France, Madagascar, and Sumatra.
