St. Jeanne Delanoue
A Soul Transformed by God's Mercy
Feast: August 17th
St. Jeanne Delanoue was born on June 18, 1666, in the city of Saumur, France, into a devout family who operated a small religious goods store near the local shrine of Our Lady of Ardilliers. From a young age, Jeanne exhibited great intelligence, resourcefulness, and a keen business sense. Yet despite her pious upbringing and proximity to a sacred place, her early life was marked more by ambition than holiness. After the death of her parents, she took over the shop and expanded its profits, running it with keen efficiency but a hardened heart, even keeping her store open on Sundays and feast days, which was a scandal in her time.
But God had greater plans for Jeanne.
In 1693, her life changed profoundly through an encounter with a poor widow named Françoise Fouchet, who prophetically told her that she was destined for a much higher calling: to care for the poor. At first skeptical, Jeanne resisted, but grace began to stir within her. Soon after, she experienced a radical interior conversion and she abandoned her materialistic ways, closed her shop on Sundays, and began to visit the sick and destitute in the caves, cellars, and hovels of Saumur. What had once been a heart of indifference was now set ablaze with divine charity.
Jeanne began welcoming orphans, the elderly, the sick, and the mentally ill into her own home. Despite the ridicule of neighbors and even physical assaults from those who misunderstood her mission, she remained steadfast. In 1704, she founded the Congregation of St. Anne of Providence, dedicated to the service of the most abandoned. Trusting entirely in Divine Providence, Jeanne accepted no regular income or stable funding, relying solely on the mercy of God and the generosity He inspired in others.
The Saint’s work quickly expanded, and by the time of her death, Jeanne had founded or inspired the establishment of over a dozen homes for the poor across western France. She became known not only for her boundless compassion but for her mystical life of prayer, penance, and spiritual discernment; she was known to heal the sick through her prayers and blessing. Though she bore many sufferings in silence, her union with Christ deepened, and she often spoke of seeing Him in the faces of the poor.
St. Jeanne Delanoue died on August 17, 1736, worn out by a life of total self-giving. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 31, 1982, as a radiant example of how God can transform even the most self-centered heart into one consumed by love.
A relic from St. Jeanne's bones, gifted to
this ministry by her congregation.
This Saint’s life remains a testimony that sanctity begins not with perfection, but with surrender - when the soul opens itself fully to God’s mercy and allows Divine Love to remake it into a likeness of Jesus Christ.
St. Jeanne Delanoue, pray for us!
