Nun dubbed France’s Mother Teresa dies at 99
October 24, 2008 // 0 CommentsFrench activist nun Soeur Emmanuelle who stood up to the Vatican and many Popes, passes away in Callian, France
A French socialite who took holy orders at the age of 23 saw her long and colorful life come to a peaceful end on Monday. Soeur Emmanuelle, whom French President Nicolas Sarkozy called everyone’s sister, was a tireless advocate for the poor and was often compared to Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
However, the French nun often created controversy. She supported married priests and urged Pope John paul II to apporve birth control pills for the poor rag-collectors of Egypt whom she served. Soeur Emmanuelle took care of the ppor of both Christian and Muslim faiths with no partiality, epitomizing the “god is love” inscribed on the door of her simple home in Cairo. She shamed the audience at a lackluster fundraiser in Switzerland into giving more money by threatening to rob a bank if donations did not get better. To the consternation of her Vatican bosses she even revealed a love affair early in her life.
Born Madeleine Cinquin, shes took the vows of the sisters of Notre-Dame de Sion and became Sister Emmanuelle when she ws 23 years old.
While Soeur Emmanuelle often posed challenges for th Vatican during her lifetime, Soeur Emmanuelle was hailed by the Vatican on Monday in response to the news of her passing as a “personification of Christian charity, whose actions, like those of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, erased national frontiers”.
Soeur Emmaunelle officially retired twice, but did much of her life work during these so-called retirements. In actuality, she worked almost up unti lthe day of her death, which was 26 days shy of her 100th birthday.
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