Litany of Saints
Picture: Leon Brune · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Jeanne Jugan

French saint

SaintResearchedFrancePost-1588

Feast: 30 August (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)

Born
25 October 1792
verified
Died
1879
verified
Beatified
3 October 1982
by John Paul II
Canonised
11 October 2009
by Benedict XVI

Who they were

Jeanne Jugan was born at Cancale in Brittany on 25 October 1792, in the storm of the Revolution, sixth of eight children; her father, a sailor, was lost at sea when she was four.

Begging for the poor and for God, she founded the Little Sisters of the Poor. Unjustly removed from governing her own congregation, she spent the rest of her life, as Sister Mary of the Cross, in prayer and humility.

The miracles

The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.

Why that counted as sanctity

A fisherman's daughter who begged for the elderly poor and accepted being set aside in silence.

Sources

Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.

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