During his last day in Singapore, Pope Francis held an emotional meeting with the elderly and sick at the St. Teresa Home, founded in 1935 by the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The beginnings of this congregation date back to 1839, when Juana Jugan felt the vocation to care for the elderly, the poor and the destitute after meeting a blind elderly woman who she decided to take into her own home.
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Saint Joan was born into a humble family in France and from a young age showed a great spirit of service. Currently, the congregation has 197 houses in the world.
Saint Joan Jugan was beatified in 1982 by Pope Saint John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
For almost 90 years, the dignity of the elderly has been exalted in this home, built on the Christian values of love and care for others, especially the most vulnerable.
Notably, from the late 1930s the home was moved from Derbyshire Road to Upper Thomson Road, high on a hill, surrounded by lush greenery.
In 2003, Catholic Welfare Services (CWS) took over the management of the Santa Teresa Home with the support of the Brothers of Mercy and the Sisters of the Child Jesus, maintaining the same objective: the healing of the sick.
In his meeting with the elderly, among whom were some priests, Pope Francis assured them that they are “very important to God” and stressed that “God forgives everything.”
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
I am a graduate in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. I have been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and I am currently a European correspondent based in Spain.