Sœur Emmanuelle
| Sœur Emmanuelle, N.D.S. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Madeleine Cinquin November 16, 1908 Brussels, Belgium |
| Died | October 20, 2008 (aged 99) Callian, Var, France |
| Occupation | Catholic Religious Sister and human rights worker |
Sœur (Sister) Emmanuelle, N.D.S., (November 16, 1908 – October 20, 2008), was a Religious Sister of both Belgian and French origins, noted for her involvement in working for the plight of the poor in Turkey and Egypt. She was honoured with Egyptian citizenship in 1991.
She was born Madeleine Cinquin in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of a French father, Jules Cinquin, and a Belgian mother, Berthe Lenssens. Her parents were wealthy lingerie manufacturers; their background was from Saint-Omer. Her paternal grandmother, Laure Mélanie Dreyfus, was the daughter of an Alsatian Jew named Emmanuel Moïse Augustin Dreyfus and a Christian mother. He was born in Wissembourg, Bas-Rhin, and started the family lingerie business. At the age of six she saw her father drown. She was educated at the Sorbonne, earning a degree in philosophy. In 1929, she professed vows and became a Religious Sister in the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion.
In the 1930s, Sister Emmanuelle started teaching at the Notre-Dame de Sion High School in Istanbul, where she lived until the 1960s, with teaching assignments by her congregation of several years in Tunis and Alexandria in between.
In 1971, Sister Emmanuelle witnessed the impoverished conditions of the trash collectors in Cairo, Egypt, and decided to live among them. She remained there until 1993, when she returned to France. It was upon her return that she gained the status of a media sensation in France, as she was well received by audiences and talk-show hosts.
...
Wikipedia