Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly celebrate founder’s feast day

Barcelona, Spain, Aug 28, 2019 / 05:07 pm (CNA).- Nearly 2,000 Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly celebrated the August 26 feast day of their foundress, Saint Teresa de Jesús Jornet. The congregation serves more than 20,000 poor, elderly residents throughout the world.

At the motherhouse of this congregation, located in Valencia, Spain, the religious sisters marked the feast day with a Solemn Mass celebrated by Bishop Vicente Segura of Ibiza and concelebrated by seven priests.

Saint Teresa de Jesús Jornet founded the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in 1872 together with Fr.  Saturnino López Novoa. A year later, she opened her first home for the elderly in the city of Valencia.

She was canonized January 27, 1974 by Saint Paul VI, who also proclaimed her the patron saint of old age in Spain in 1977. She is buried at the congregation’s motherhouse.

The congregation currently has more than 2,200 Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly caring for more than 20,000 poor elderly residents in 204 institutions throughout 21 countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The 175th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa de Jesús Jornet was celebrated in 2018. Pilgrimages were organized from all the houses of the congregation to the museum dedicated to the foundress, which is located in the home where she was born in Aitona, Lérida Province, Spain.

On the occasion of this anniversary, a statue was dedicated to her on the grounds of the Montserrat Monastery in Barcelona, Spain.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.