Sister Emmanuelle dies

Sister Emmanuelle, known for her good works among the disenfrachised, has died in France at the age of 99. She was revered for her "candor and caring". {image description: Sister Emmanuelle is shown in the photo at left, smiling, wearing glasses and her habit.]

Her work advocating for the poor spanned many years and has been likened to that of Mother Teresa. She formed the Sister Emmanuelle Association, a charitable organization. Her autobiography will be released Friday.

From the NY Times obituary,:

After she took her vows — in either 1929 or 1931, according to varying reports — she taught in schools in Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt. In 1971, when she was 62, she received permission from her order for what had long been her desire, to move to Cairo and live among the poorest of its citizens in Ezbet El Nakhl, a slum whose residents, known as zabbaleen, share space with refuse, sorting and recycling it for the city, and scavenging in it, too. There she lived in a one-room hut for 22 years, while helping to establish schools, clinics and play areas.

The Sister Emmanuelle Association, which she founded in 1980, eventually extended its work to Brazil, Burkina Faso, Haiti, the Philippines, Senegal and Sudan.

She returned to France in 1993 and became an outspoken advocate for the rights of the poor.

See also Swiss Association of Friends of Sister Emmanuelle

Soeur Emmanuelle (Wikipedia)