"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[1].
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