Women With Down Syndrome Respond to God’s Call

Women With Down Syndrome Respond to God’s Call July 26, 2014


To offer oneself to God, in witness to the Gospel of Life.

This is the mission of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb, a contemplative order in France which opens its doors to women who feel a call to religious life, but who may be turned away from other orders because they have Down Syndrome.  The community depends on other sisters who do not have Down Syndrome, but who have committed to share their lives with these lovely, holy women.

The community was founded in 1985 with the support and encouragement of Jerome Lejeune, the French pediatrician and geneticist whose laboratory research uncovered the link to chromosomal abnormalities including Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome).


In 1990, the group was canonically recognized
as a public association by the Archbishop of Tours. The Sisters now reside in a priory in Blanc, where they model their lives after St. Therese of Lisieux’s “Little Way”.  A leaflet published by the community explains:

We follow every day the “little way” taught by Saint Therese; knowing that “great actions are forbidden to us”, we learn from her to receive everything from God, to “love for the brothers who fight”, to “scatter flowers for Jesus”, and to pray for the intentions entrusted to us.

 


Browse Our Archives