At Llíria in Spain, Saint Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars, virgin, who founded the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Aged for the care of the elderly.
Lifespan: 1843–1897
Beatified: 25 April 1958 by Pope Pius XII
Canonized: 27 January 1974 by Pope Paul VI, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 26 August
He has exalted the humble
cf. Luke 1:52
She was born at Aytona, near Lérida in Catalonia, on 9 January 1843, the daughter of Francisco Jornet and Antonia Ibars. She received Baptism the day after her birth, and Confirmation, in accordance with the custom of the time, at the age of six.
While still barely an adolescent, she was taken to Lérida by her aunt Rosa. She later moved to Fraga, where she obtained her teaching diploma. At nineteen she was appointed as a teacher at Argensola, near Barcelona, where she devoted herself to educational work through the schools founded by her great-uncle, Blessed Francisco Palau y Quer.
After withdrawing from that work, she waited for God’s will to make itself known to her. A chance meeting with Father Pedro Llacera in the city of Barbastro opened before her the possibility of joining a newly founded congregation, established by Father Saturnino López Novoa for the care of the poor and sick elderly. On 11 October 1872 she moved to Barbastro together with her sister María and a mutual friend, Mercedes Calzada y Senán, to join the first candidates.
The small group, of which Teresa had been appointed superior, received the religious habit on 27 January 1873: that date marks the founding of the “Little Sisters of the Abandoned Poor,” later renamed the “Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly.”
She died of tuberculosis at Liria, near Valencia, on 26 August 1897.
She was canonized by Blessed Paul VI on 27 January 1974.
Her mortal remains, together with those of Father Saturnino López Novoa (declared Venerable in 2014), rest in the crypt adjoining the motherhouse of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in Valencia. Both are recognized as co-founders of the Congregation in equal measure and in the fullest sense.