The Catholic nun, who worked in slums, has died aged 99, her retirement home announced yesterday. Soeur Emmanuelle, born Madeleine Cinquin in Belgium in 1908, was ranked France?s most popular woman for several years running after battling poverty in Cairo slums. Her sometimes outspoken views struck a chord in secular society.

She took religious vows in 1931 and taught literature and philosophy in the Middle East for most of her life. When she retired as a teacher, she moved to Cairo where she spent two decades helping slum dwellers.

Sister Emmanuelle returned to France in 1993 and, despite her advanced age, started working in the poor neighbourhoods of Paris, telling reporters she was shocked by the deprivation she encountered. Known for her straight talk and quick repartee as much as her large glasses and wrinkled smile, she defied the Catholic hierarchy by supporting such controversial views as contraception and priests marrying.

Condolences from French politicians and officials poured in yesterday. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi applauded her efforts around the world and her contact with other faiths, comparing her to Mother Teresa who worked with the poor in India. ?Her charity went beyond borders, as with Mother Teresa?, he told French Catholic news agency I.Media. The secular Soeur Emmanuelle association she founded almost 30 years ago provides health care and education to some 80,000 deprived children in Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, the Philippines, Madagascar, India, Burkina Faso and France.