Little Sisters of Jesus
Inspired by the life and writings of Charles de Foucauld, they were founded by Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus (Madeleine Hutin).
It is an important day that will always be remembered for the foundation of the Little Sisters of Jesus so that the birthday of the Blessed Virgin will mark the birth of a new religious congregation.
It must be a faith capable of moving mountains, incorporating the strongest belief in Brother Charles' guiding principle, 'Jesus is Lord of the impossible'"[4]Many young women were attracted by the ideal and wanted to join her.
Communities began in Switzerland, Brazil, Morocco, the Middle East, Central Africa, India, Vietnam...
In 1951 Little Sister Magdeleine received permission to found a community in a very poor neighbourhood of Rome, Borgata Prenestina, in a temporary dwelling like that of the neighbours.
Little Sister Magdeleine boldly and tenaciously defended this new form of religious life when questioned by the authorities of the Church and made three appeals to Pope Pius XII, the first in December 1944 through an intermediary, Archbishop Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), and directly in June 1947 and again in July 1948.
She wanted the sisters to be "A witness to the Church’s love for working people and for the poor, to whom Christ and the holy family belonged."
"[10]Little Sister Magdeleine wanted to be free and available to make new foundations, retaining her role as Foundress all her life.
They travelled through Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and French Indochina, going to Australia and Papua-New Guinea, continuing with newly independent Indonesia, Ceylon, India and Pakistan, even entering into Afghanistan.
Look at the map of the world and see if you can find a handful of people scattered over a large territory and difficult to reach... You must really choose to go there, otherwise no-one else may ever come to tell them that Jesus loves them, that he suffered and died for them.
Every year she left discreetly with a small group of Little Sisters to visit friends in the different countries behind the iron curtain.
In the front of the van, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved as it is wherever the Sisters live, even if it be a caravan, a tent or a hut.
In 1952, Little Sister Magdeleine wrote: "When I'll have completed my task as foundress, in response to what seems to me to be a very strong inner call, if God does not put anything in my way....
(letter 15 October 1952)[13]In 1964 when USSR started to be more open to tourism, she began to include Soviet Russia in her travels.
In 1956 a collection of wooden prefabricated houses were built under the eucalyptus trees on a piece of ground belonging to the Trappist Fathers of Tre Fontane, near the site of the beheading of St Paul, which became the Generalate in 1964.
In 1946, following the decision to expand throughout the world, the Little Sisters of Jesus became a recognised diocesan congregation of the archdiocese of Aix-en-Provence.
After 1948, as communities of Little Sisters of Jesus were established in the Middle East, among Christians of that region, belonging to several Eastern Catholic Churches: Maronite, Syrian, Coptic, Armenian and Chaldean.
The Little Sisters of Jesus were recognised as of being of Pontifical Right on 25 March 1964 and the Generalate was established at Tre Fontane, Rome on 31 May 1964.
On that day, Little Sister Magdeleine wrote to Pope Paul VI that it was the realisation of her dream as a foundress.
In 1989, at the age of 91, Little Sister Magdeleine made her last journey to Eastern Europe, including Russia where she met Fr.
At a papal audience during the celebrations, Pope John Paul II told the Little Sisters of Jesus "Your history is only just beginning!
Her funeral and farewell Mass (during which the Gospel was sung in Arabic) took place in the open air in Tre Fontane on 10 November 1989 - the day the Berlin Wall fell.
Living in small communities, Little Sisters of Jesus seek to lead a contemplative life in the midst of people.
Often staying in rented accommodation or where poorer people live, they take ordinary jobs or work alongside their neighbours and practice hospitality.
Their lifelong call is a non-professional one: By preference they seek to live among those who are inaccessible to other forms of Church ministry or whose day-to-day life is marked by division, racism, poverty or violence.
