Today is the feast of Blessed Anne Marie Jahouvey (1779 - 1851), a fairly modern saint (comparatively). Much as I admire them, there aren't many saints I imitate exactly, but for some reason this saint's prayer resonates with me. She was estranged from her father and had set up an orphanage, along with the other sisters of her order (an order she herself founded, the Order of St. Joseph of Cluny) and one day they ran out of money for food. She went into the church and said this prayer:
"I need help. I know that I have been imprudent, and perhaps I have gone beyond your will in many ways. But I have done it for the children. They are more Yours than they are mine. If I have made mistakes, punish me -- not them. I beg You, don't forsake them. Please, please help." I say that exact prayer. And it works! It worked for her, too, only not in the exact way she expected. (It never does.) She went to the cupboard again, dramatically throwing open the doors to reveal . . . nothing. Sigh. But just then the rumbling of a cart on the street out front was heard: it was a wagonload of food, driven by her father who said, "I don't know why I am doing this. But I suppose I can't let you starve." And her prayer was answered. God is good.
What can we say about Blessed Anne Marie (known affectionately as Nanette)? Well, Anne Marie exhibited courage and leadership from the youngest age, as well as the trust so clearly shown above. She fearlessly sheltered clergy during the time of religious persecution in France. After the Terror and things settled down, she tried joining the Carthusians, and knew she didn't fit in there. She didn't seem to fit in anywhere. A dear friend, the Cistercian Dom Augustine Lestrange, frankly told her she needed to start her own order. She had a vision of herself and a roomful of black children and knew she had found her vocation.
As I've stated, she founded the sisters of St. Joseph -- and started a school, but all of the children were white! She obeyed and she trusted, and the meaning of the vision only became clear later. The governor of the island of Reunion asked her to send some sisters there, and the "roomful of black children" finally came true. But that was not the end of it; not by a long shot. From there she started schools and orphanages in Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone and French Guiana. You can't tell from that triumphant line that her life was a huge struggle and a controversial one at that. She was very progressive in her educational methods (and strongly criticized for it), but also ahead of her time by actively advocating native clergy for the missions. She was bitterly opposed for sending young Senegalese men to France for training in the priesthood to be sent back to Senegal. Prejudice was rampant then and she was frustrated in this plan.
She had "a clear and receptive mind and intellectual ability. Those qualities have their dangers, even for a fervent religious." - Butler's Lives. I think that's one reason why she met with both so much opposition and so much success, particularly in Guiana, where she -- and 36 sisters, 50 blacks and some French artisans -- successfully colonized the troublesome Mana district, where others had failed. Their jealousy assailed her; rumors flew; sisters broke ranks and even went into schism; the prefect apostolic there even put her under interdict for 2 years -- and she obeyed. No sacraments for 2 years! "The Cross is found wherever there are servants of God and I rejoice to be reckoned among them," said she.
And it was in Guiana that she performed her most famous act: the training, discipline, and religious formation of 600 about-to-be-freed slaves. From this bitter and untrained raw material, men, women and children alike, she formed an elite and educated force, civilized and hard-working, that took their place in society, much to the chagrin of the anti-abolitionists, some of whom tried to kill her. Her task, set in some of the worst climate and hairiest conditions on the planet, was done so well it caused King Louis-Philippe to exclaim: "Madame Jahouvey is a great man!" High praise indeed.
She had traveled the world and at the time of her death had established convents and institutions as far away as Tahiti, Madagascar and India. But her traveling days were over. On July 15th, 1851 she said, "I have a different journey in front of me, and I must make it alone." She died in peace on that day.
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