Saint of the day November 18, 2024

Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in Grenoble, France, on August 29, 1769, into a family actively involved in political and commercial life. Educated by the Visitation nuns at Sainte Marie d’en Haut monastery, she was drawn to their life of contemplation. She entered the congregation when she was 19, against the wishes of her family.

The French Revolution soon forced the nuns to leave the monastery, and Philippine returned to her family. For 11 years, she risked her freedom and life by nursing prisoners, bringing priests to the faithful, and teaching and feeding poor children. At the close of the war, she gained title to Sainte Marie d’en Haut and opened a boarding school. In December 1804, she met Madeleine Sophie Barat, who in 1800 had founded the Society of the Sacred Heart. Philippine immediately turned over Sainte Marie d’en Haut and entered the Society.

A deep friendship formed between these two remarkable women of such different temperaments. For 12 years, Sophie's patient wisdom molded the ardent, steadfast Philippine into a religious call to glorify the Heart of Jesus. Philippine, whose greatest joy was to spend whole nights in prayer, soon felt a call to serve as a missionary. Philippine often shared with Sophie her dream of bringing the Gospel to the native peoples in America, but her skills were needed at home, first in the school at Sainte Marie, and from 1815 as the Society’s secretary general.

Her dream was realized when Sophie accepted Bishop William Du Bourg’s invitation to establish schools for the Native Americans and French children in the diocese of Louisiana. Philippine Duchesne, Eugénie Audé, Octavia Berthold, Marguerite Manteau, and Catherine Lamarre set sail for North America on the Rebecca, on March 21, 1818, landing near New Orleans on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, May 29, 1818, and from there they traveled to St. Louis, Missouri.

At the direction of Bishop Dubourg, Philippine and her companions went to St. Charles, Missouri, across the Missouri River, where on September 14, 1818, they opened the first Sacred Heart school outside of Europe. It was also the first free school west of the Mississippi and the first Catholic school in what would become the Saint Louis Archdiocese. By the next year, they relocated to Florissant, Missouri, where in 1820, Mother Duchesne opened the first novitiate. Other schools soon followed in Missouri and Louisiana. Eventually, there were six schools.

During this period, Philippine also decided to involve the Society in the institution of slavery, with the support of Sophie and the encouragement of other Catholic religious orders and clergy, as well as her local bishops. The eventual success of the schools founded in that time is due in no small part to the many enslaved people whose forced labor built and maintained them. (Much work is being done in the United States – Canada Province today to uncover the truth about this shameful part of our history, take responsibility for the grievousness of the sin committed, and take steps towards a process of repair and reconciliation. Read more here.)

In 1841, Philippine and three other Religious of the Sacred Heart went to Sugar Creek, Kansas, to establish a school for Potawatomi girls. At 72, too frail to do physical work, and unable to learn the Potawatomi language, she spent much of her time in prayer, gaining the name “Woman Who Is Always Praying.” After just one year, she was recalled to St. Charles, her original foundation, where she died on November 18, 1852, at age 83, having spent 34 years in America.

It was later admirers of Philippine who initiated her process of canonization in the Catholic Church. She was declared a saint of the Catholic Church in 1988. Her Feast Day is November 18.

Reflection

This courageous woman gave up all that she knew and all that she had, except for her religious habit and the companionship of a few sisters, so that she could bring the Gospel to the frontier of the United States as the people slowly moved West. Her deepest desire to share the faith with the natives became a reality because of her perseverance and reliance on prayer. As we honor Saint Rose today, we honor her as a true spiritual mother who saw everyone as her children whom she needed to nurture in love by instilling faith and hope. In imitation of her, allow the desire to be a missionary to be enkindled within your heart. Though you might not be called to travel the seas to share the faith, you will certainly be called to share the love of Christ in accord with your vocation. Submit yourself fully to that mission, and God will use you, as He used Mother Duchesne, for glorious things.