Saintly Teacher

Today's saint would spend many years teaching the poor in France.  However, her real call was to the mission fields of the thriving new nation known as the United States.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

Feast day: November 18
Born  1769
Death: 1852
Patron of Opposition of Church authorities
Born in Grenoble, France
Wealthy parents

From a young age, Rose was educated among the nuns along with her cousin.  However, when her father saw that she was drawn to this life of prayer, he had Rose return home to a private tutor.  At the age of 18, she chose to enter the Visitation of Holy Mary religious order in spite of her family opposition.  Due to the French Revolution, she was returned to her family but she continued to live out her prayerful duties.  When stability returned to the country, she tried to reunite the order of nuns but due to the harsh conditions only three companions remained with her.

With the assistance of Madeleine-Sophie Barat (feast day in May), Rose was able to merge her order with the Society of the Sacred Heart order.  In 1815, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Rose followed Barat's instructions and established a Convent of the Sacred Heart in Paris, where she both opened a school and became the Mistress of novices.

In 1817, the nuns were visited by the Bishop of New Orleans who was looking for a group of educators willing to minister to the Indian and French children of his diocese.  Rose quickly begged Barat to allow her to accept the bishop's request.  A year later, Rose would be accompanied by four nuns as they traveled to the United States.  However, when they arrived in New Orleans, they found that there was no place for them to stay.  Rose and her companions left and were able to establish themselves in St. Charles which was in the Missouri territory.

The first convent of the order outside of France would be in a log cabin.  Rose would begin to form the first free school west of the Mississippi River by the end of 1818.  Within the first ten years, she would have six communities throughout the area running schools for the poor.  The nuns would later have the assistance of the Jesuits as well.

In 1841 the Jesuits asked the Sisters to join them in a new mission with the Potawatomi tribe in eastern Kansas.  Although Rose was 71 years old and not initially chosen for the mission, a priest who was part of the mission insisted that she join the group.  Rose was unable to learn the language of the natives, but she worked tirelessly to assist the tribal people through prayer.  She was known as "The Woman who Always Prays" by the children of the village.

"We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self…. The truest crosses are those we do not choose ourselves…. He who has Jesus has everything." (St. Rose Philippine Duchesne)

She would soon return to St. Charles due to her health.  She was a lonely woman as she lived out another ten years of prayer in a small area among the other nuns.  She died in 1852 at the age of 83 thinking herself a failure, yet she was the first missionary nun among the Indians, blazing the trail for a host of valiant women who were to follow her.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, pray for us!