November 18 - Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

Quick Facts

• Born to family with wealth and political connections; her father, Pierre Francois Duchesne, was a lawyer, businessman, and prominent civic leader in Grenoble, and her mother, Rose Perier, was a member of a leading family from the Dauphine region. From age eight she had a desire to evangelize in the Americas, sparked by hearing a Jesuit missionary speak of his work there. She received a basic education at home from tutors, and religious education from her mother.
• Educated from age 12 at the convent of the Visitation nuns in Grenoble, she joined them in 1788 at age 19 without the permission or knowledge of her family.
• Initially they were violently opposed to her choice, but finally gave in.
• Religious communities were outlawed during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, and her convent was closed in 1792.
• She spent the next ten years living as a laywoman again, but still managed to act like a good member of her Order.She established a school for poor children, provided care for the sick, and hid priests from Revolutionaries.
• When the Terror ended, she reclaimed her convent and tried to reestablish it with a group of sisters she had maintained in Grenoble.
• However, most were long gone, and in 1804 the group was incorporated into the Society of the Sacred Heart under Saint Madeline Sophie Barat.
• They then reopened the convent of Sainte-Marie-d'en-Haut as the second house of Sacred Heart nuns.
• Rose became a postulant in December 1804, and made her final vows in 1805.
• In 1815 Mother Duschene was assigned to found a Sacred Heart convent in Paris.
• On 14 March 1818 at age 49 she and four sisters were sent as missionaries to the Louisiana Territory to establish the Society's presence in America.
• Diseases contracted during the trip to America nearly killed her, and after she recovered in New Orleans, the trip up the Mississippi nearly killed her again.
• She established her first mission at Saint Charles, Missouri, a log cabin that was the first free school west of the Mississippi River.
• She eventually six other houses in America which included schools and orphanages.
• She ran into some opposition as her teaching methods were based on French models, and her English was terrible; her students, however, received a good education, and her intentions were obviously for their best.
• She was ever concerned about the plight of Native Americans, and much of her work was devoted to educating them, caring for their sick, and working against alcohol abuse.
• Finally able to retire from her administrative duties, Mother Duchesne eangelized the Pottowatomies and in the Rocky Mountains at age 71, and taught young girls of the tribe.
• This work, however, lasted but a year as she was unable to master the Pottowatomi language.
• She was known to the tribe as ""Woman-Who-Prays-Always"".She spent her last ten years in retirement in a tiny shack at the convent in Saint Charles, Missouri where she lived austerely and in constant prayer.