Our Residents come from many walks of life and have known multiple joys and sorrows. They bring their wisdom, prayers and suffering to offer to their loved ones and all of the Church.
Our Little Sisters strive to balance contemplation and action, being available to provide assistance to the Residents’ needs. We offer our lives, our prayers and our gifts to the mission of hospitality founded by Saint Jeanne Jugan.
Our Staff who serve with joy and generous dedication, seeking to fulfill the request of Saint Jeanne Jugan: “Make the Residents happy.”
Our friends who advise, volunteer, donate, visit and pray for/with us.
Located in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, our Home offers a unique mixture of city and rural living in an old-fashioned neighborhood.
The Poor Clares lived a contemplative life on this walled property for 66 years, making it truly “holy ground.”
Hospitality sprung from those Franciscan roots with the arrival of the Little Sisters in May 2005. It took an army of donors and volunteers to help us develop a construction site into a comfortable, lovely Home where the spirit of Saint Jeanne Jugan could be implanted and lived.
Once the first Residents arrived in June 2005 that spirit took root and has grown with each day.
The Little Sisters of the Poor have been in the Bronx for a long time!
Their work started under the patronage of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
It was on October 15, 1903, that a third foundation was begun in New York. Located at 660 East 183rd Street, it served 4,780 elderly men and women in the Bronx until 1979.
Construction for a new Home was begun on September 8, 1977, and completed in December of 1979. It was again under the patronage of Our Lady that the move from the old Home to the new one took place on December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Besides changing location, the name changed, too. The Home at 3200 Baychester Avenue would be called Jeanne Jugan Residence.
In 2005, the new Jeanne Jugan Residence, located at 2999 Schurz Avenue, in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, became a new home for 30 Residents in the nursing unit and 17 Residents in independent living apartments.
In August 2022, it was decided to convert the Skilled Unit to single occupancy studios. Construction was completed in the middle of October 2022.
Meet Members of Our Family!
Angie Fitizzi moved to the Bronx after our Home in Totowa, New Jersey closed. Having lived with the Little Sisters since 2006, she was very much a part of the Jeanne Jugan Family.
She loves to bake and has frequently treated the other Residents and Sisters to her excellent Italian cuisine.
Anglie loves life. She has a beautiful singing voice and thanks to her, the Bronx has been able to create a choir since her arrival.
In her own words, “I am back singing, it may not be the best I have ever done but at 85 you have to take whatever God gives you.”
She added, “One very thing I can attest to is the Sisters care for you until the day you die, in fact I think they preserve you so you don’t die!”
The Little Sisters of the Poor are an international congregation of Roman Catholic women religious founded in 1839 by Saint Jeanne Jugan. Together with a diverse network of collaborators, we serve the elderly poor in over 30 countries around the world.
Continuing the work of Saint Jeanne Jugan, our MISSION is to offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as family and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to himself.
Our VISION is to contribute to the Culture of Life by nurturing communities where each person is valued, the solidarity of the human family and the wisdom of age are celebrated, and the compassionate love of Christ is shared with all.
The VALUES of the Little Sisters include:
As Little Sisters of the Poor we care for the elderly poor in the spirit of humble service we have received from our foundress, Saint Jeanne Jugan. We minister to the elderly as we would to Jesus Christ himself and serve them with love and respect until God calls them home. We welcome low-income elderly who are at least 65 years of age regardless of faith, race or religion. We also strive to minister to the emotional and spiritual needs of our Residents. We encourage an active lifestyle through meaningful activities, a lively pastoral program, and daily Mass celebrated in our chapel for those who choose to attend.
We adhere to all the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, especially those concerning the sanctity of human life. We reject all forms of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and we protect our Residents from these practices, as well as from all forms of abuse and neglect.
We continue our tradition of assuring a constant presence to those who have entered the dying process. Accompanying a Resident on his or her final journey is the greatest expression of our hospitality mission and the most sacred aspect of our work.
Saint Jeanne Jugan walked the roads of Brittany seeking alms to provide for the needs of the aged poor. The Hospitaller Brothers of Saint John of God had introduced Jeanne to the practice of the begging.
Like them, Jeanne Jugan’s vision of family extended far beyond those with whom she shared her life. She sought to involve people from many walks of life in her mission of hospitality, gratefully accepting whatever they could contribute in time, treasure or talent.
So trusting was Jeanne in the Providence of God and the goodness of others that, in her old age, she intervened at a decisive moment in our history to ensure that the Congregation would never accept guaranteed forms of income. To do so, she felt, would betray our trust in Providence.
Just as Jeanne was recognized by her begging basket, today’s collecting Little Sisters are known by the van in which they make their daily rounds, visiting businesses and markets asking for food and other commodities to help offset our operating expenses.
On weekends they visit local parishes to ask for support.
They plan mailings and organize fund raising events in favor of our Homes.
The Little Sisters carry on the tradition of begging so dear to our foundress.
In today’s economy, we must count on community support more than ever.
Jeanne always thanked her benefactors by praying for them – and she thanked God at the same time. “God has blessed me,” she said, “because I always thanked his Providence … What gratitude we owe our benefactors … What could we do for the elderly without them?”
Like Saint Jeanne Jugan, we recognize that our benefactors are indispensable partners in our mission. And like her, we pray for them every day!
