Long Description:
"Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne (August 29, 1769 - November 18,
1852), was a Catholic nun and French saint, she was born in
Grenoble, France and died in St. Charles, Missouri. She, along with
Madeleine Sophie Barat founded the Society of the Sacred Heart.
Founder in America of the first houses of the Society of the
Sacred Heart, she was the daughter of Pierre-Francois Duchesne, an
eminent lawyer. Her mother was a Perier, ancestor of
Casimir-Perier, President of France in 1894. She was educated by
the Visitation nuns, entered that order, saw its dispersion during
the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, vainly attempted the
reestablishment of the convent of Ste-Marie-d'en-Haut, near
Grenoble, and finally, in 1804, accepted the offer of Mother Barat
to receive her community into the Society of the Sacred Heart.
From early childhood, the dream of Philippine had been the
apostolate of souls: heathen in distant lands, the neglected and
poor at home. Nature and grace combined to fit her for this high
vocation; education, suffering and, above all, the guidance of
Mother Barat, trained her to become the pioneer of her order in the
New world. In 1818 Mother Duchesne set out with four companions for
the missions of America. Bishop Dubourg welcomed her to New
Orleans, when she sailed up the Mississippi to St. Louis, finally
settling her little colony at St. Charles.
"Poverty and Christian heroism are here", she wrote, "and trials
are the riches of priests in this land." Cold, hunger, and illness;
opposition, ingratitude, and calumny; all these came to try the
courage of this missioner, and served only to fire her lofty and
indomitable spirit with new zeal for the spread of truth. Other
foundations followed, at Florissant, Grand Côteau, New Orleans, St.
Louis, St. Michael; and the approbation of the society in 1826 by
Leo XII recognized the good being done in these parts. She yearned
to teach the poor Indians, and old and broken as she was, she went
to labour among the Pottowatomies at Sugar Creek, thus realizing
the desire of her life. Stirred by the recitals of Father De Smet,
S.J., she turned her eyes towards the Rocky Mountain missions; but
Providence led her back to St. Charles, where she died.
34 years of mission toil, disappointment, endurance, and
self-annihilation sufficed, indeed, to prove the worth of this
valiant daughter of Mother Barat. She had opened the road so that
others might walk in it; and the success hidden from her eyes was
well seen later by the many who rejoiced in the rapid spread of her
order over North and South America. Sincere, intense, generous,
austere yet affectionate, endowed with large capacity for suffering
and work, Mother Duchesne's was a stern character that needed and
took the moulding of Mother Barat. She was canonized on July 3,
1988, by Pope John Paul II" - Wikipedia
