France’s ‘Mother Teresa’ dies aged 99

Oct 20, 2008

PARIS – Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgian-born nun who devoted her life to helping the poor in North Africa and in France, has died aged 99, the association she founded said Monday.

The Roman Catholic nun, whose real name was Madeleine Cinquin, had spent 20 years working with children in a slum in Cairo as part of a lengthy career helping the dispossessed.

Her outspoken comments and passionate campaigning on behalf of the poor and homeless upon her return to France won the hearts of many French.

She died peacefully in her sleep in a retirement home in the southern
French town of Callian, said the Asmae-Association Soeur Emmanuelle.

   The Vatican said her work, like that of Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa, "showed how Christian charity was able to go beyond differences of nationality, race, religion."

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his "heart was heavy" on
learning of the death of a woman whose "faith made mountains tremble."

The association she set up has opened clinics and schools across the world, from Sudan to the Philippines to India.

(AFP/Expatica 2008)