By Christina Gray
For more than one century, St. Anne’s Home in San Francisco has cared for needy seniors in their final years, including dozens of priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The residential care home and skilled nursing facility run by the Little Sisters of the Poor will close its doors in April.
Provincial Superior, Sister Julie Horseman, lsp, said in a public announcement in January that it was a “difficult decision” to withdraw its San Francisco presence. The Little Sisters of the Poor have been caring for the elderly in San Francisco since 1901.
“The Little Sisters have recognized the need to withdraw from a certain number of homes in the United States while at the same time dedicating its resources to much needed upgrades and reconstruction projects in others,” Sister Horseman said. The decision involved “many factors” and came only come after a long period of “prayer, much consultation, and study.”
She said that proceeds from the sale of the San Francisco facility will be redirected to those projects and the general mission of the order.
The closure of St. Anne’s Home follows the closure of the Nazareth House in San Rafael in 2021. With the exception of Serra Clergy House in San Mateo that cares for aging priests, the closures effectively end Catholic-run residential care for the elderly within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The Coronavirus pandemic and the high cost of local housing for staff presented “unsustainable” operational challenges that helped deal a fatal blow to the Marin County Nazareth House run by Sisters of Nazareth for nearly 60 years. Similar regional operating costs were a factor in the closure of St. Anne’s Home, according to Sister Horseman.
Alma Via assisted living, with locations in San Francisco and San Rafael, is a joint venture of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas West Midwest Community and the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Like St. Anne’s Home, Alma Via welcomes residents of all faiths.
The history of St. Anne’s Home is a story of devotion to the elderly that began in France with St. Jeanne Jugan, the French foundress of The Little Sisters of the Poor. In 1839, she carried a blind, old woman alone on the streets on a cold winter’s night into her own small apartment to care for her. She devoted the rest of her life to ministering to the needs of the elderly.
Not long after the Little Sisters arrived in San Francisco to care for the elderly poor, they outgrew their residential care home in the Mission District. Edward Joseph LeBreton, a successful local businessman and a devout Catholic, took an active interest in the Sisters’ mission and gifted them with an enormous brick home on Lake Street near the Presidio. It opened its doors in 1904.
“It is but for God that I am giving,” LeBreton told the Sisters. He placed two conditions on his gift. The first was an inscription for over the door that read: “In Honor of My Father and Mother.” The second was that St. Anne, the mother of Mary, be the patron namesake of the new home.
In 1977, St. Anne’s Home was declared unsafe in the event of a fire or earthquake. Thanks to the kindness of many benefactors and volunteers, the current structure at 300 Lake Street opened in 1979.
In making her announcement, Sister Horseman thanked Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone for his support of the mission of the Little Sisters of the Poor. In turn, he thanked them at a Mass of Thanksgiving celebrating their legacy at St. Dominic Church on Feb. 23.
The Sisters who tenderly served the elderly at St. Anne’s Home for generations have “truly lived the charism of their foundress,” he said in his homily, and like her, are “the image of Christ on earth.”
“It is with heavy but indeed profoundly grateful hearts that we come to the closing of the Little Sisters’ witness to the love of Christ in our midst at St. Anne’s Home,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “Not simply talking about it but making it visible day in and day out, in myriad little ways that add up to a giant treasury of blessings for all of us.”
Visit: littlesistersofthepoorsanfrancisco.org
Photos from the Mass of Thanksgiving (courtesy of Kelly Connolly and Br. Chris Garcia):
