As the number of postulants kept growing the Home of Rennes was too small to accommodate them. The large estate of La Tour Saint Joseph was for sale which was bought with the help of Abbe Gontard and Abbe Lelievre.  In the Spring of 1856, Jeanne, along with a group of postulants and novices, moved to La Tour to Joseph, house. Jeanne lived her life hidden from the world for 23 years until her death in 1879. However, her influence on the young postulants and novices was profound. She taught them to live by faith and to practice charity, she also passed on much practical advice on caring for the elderly poor.

Little by little, light was shed on the situation. In 1902, the truth began to emerge and Jeanne Jugan, known as Sister Mary of the Cross, who had died in quiet obscurity a quarter of a century before was not the third Little Sister, as everyone had been led to believe, but the foundress!

On 13th July 1979, the Church recognised the heroicity of Jeanne Jugan’s virtues. On 3rd October 1982, Pope John Paul ll proclaimed her Blessed and on 11th October 2009 on St Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Jeanne Jugan to be a Saint!