Joan's was a real-life Ebenezer Scrooge story
After a while, success in business lost its luster
By Tony Staley
Compass Editor
Sometimes we hear stories about people who made a radical change in their lives after a conversion experience. One of those people was St. Joan of the Cross Delanoue.
This French saint was the last of 12 children. When she was 25, her widowed mother died, leaving her the family's religious goods store. Despite what she sold, there was little religious about Joan, who lived to make and count cash, even keeping her shop open Sunday and holy days and horrifying the town.
On the evening of the Epiphany in 1693, an old, shabbily dressed woman came to Joan's door seeking lodging while making a pilgrimage to several shrines. Joan, who routinely turned away beggars, for some reason allowed the woman, Frances Souchet, to stay even though she paid little or no rent.
Frances, who often muttered to herself, told Joan that she had been sent by God. During Lent, Joan began paying attention to what Frances was saying. Soon, making and counting money no longer brought her joy. She began visiting shrines, closing the shop on Sundays and going to Mass with Frances.
Finally, Joan began to believe that Frances had a message for her from God: "I was hungry and you did not feed me; thirsty and you did not give me drink; a stranger, and you did not shelter me."
She decided to take in a homeless family with six children. Word spread and more people came seeking help. Joan worried about how she could help them. Frances told her: "The king of France won't give you his purse, but the King of kings will always keep his open for you."
Joan closed her shop and began doing penances to atone for her sins while continuing to help those in need. Her home became known as Providence House because of the care she provided for the sick, elderly, poor and orphans. Her house was destroyed in an earthquake in 1702 that killed one child. She found another house, but it soon became too small.
In 1704, two young women volunteered to help her. On the feast of St. Anne (July 26), Joan, her niece and the two women accepted the religious habit as Sisters of St. Anne. In 1706, she leased a large house from the Oratorians and won the support of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort. The Bishop of Angers approved their rule in 1709 and she became Joan of the Cross.
She soon had 40 helpers and her congregation began to grow, spreading to other communities in France. By the time she died of a terrible fever, Joan had started 12 communities, hospices and schools.
While Joan was considered a saint by the time she died, nearly 250 years would pass before she was canonized by Pope John Paul II.
(Sources: All Saints, Butler's Lives of the Saints, Dictionary of Saints, Lives of the Saints and Lives of the Saints II)
|
