Barcelona, Spain, Aug 28, 2019 / 16:07 pm
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.