Sister Mary Evelyn Jegen, one of the co-founders of Pax Christi USA and the group's first national coordinator, died July 4 after a long illness. She was 86. A funeral Mass for Sister Jegen, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de
Namur for 66 years, was scheduled for July 11 in the chapel at her
community's motherhouse in Cincinnati. In 1982, she became the third
recipient of Pax Christi USA's Pope John XXIII Teacher of Peace Award.
During her tenure as national coordinator, from 1979 to 1982, Pax
Christi USA's membership grew from less than 1,000 to more than 5,500
members, including 46 U.S. bishops. "Mary Evelyn Jegen was teacher and
mentor for an entire generation of Catholic peace activists like me,"
said a July 7 statement form Tom Cordaro, Pax Christi USA's "ambassador
of peace" and an author and lay minister. "She had that rare combination
of gifts that set her apart from many others in the movement. She was
an excellent theologian, a gifted writer and, most importantly, she was a
strategic thinker and visionary. Everything Mary Evelyn did as a leader
in the Catholic peace movement was strategically focused on her vision
of making nonviolence and peacemaking an integral part of Catholic
social teaching and practice at all levels of the church."
Born during the turbulent era of the French Revolution, Saint Jeanne Jugan rose above hardship and a lack of formal schooling to become a profound vessel of Christ’s mercy. After losing her father at a young age and working through her youth as a kitchen maid and nurse, her life radically changed one freezing night when she encountered a blind, paralyzed elderly woman with nowhere to go. Jeanne carried the woman back to her own home, placed her in her own bed, and began a lifelong mission of radical hospitality. This act of profound love blossomed into the Little Sisters of the Poor , a thriving community dedicated to sheltering and honoring the destitute elderly. Despite later facing heavy trials—including being unjustly sidelined and stripped of her leadership by a controlling chaplain—Jeanne accepted her obscurity and exile with a joyful spirit, resting her complete trust in God's hidden providence until her death in 1879. In our daily lives, Saint Jeanne Jugan invites us to lo...