Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

Life story

Philippine Duchesne was born on 29 August 1769 in Grenoble, France, into a family of lawyers and merchants. In 1788 she entered the Visitation convent of Sainte-Marie-d'en-Haut. The French Revolution forced the convent to close, and she went back to her family, where she cared for the poor and for prisoners.

In 1804 she met Madeleine Sophie Barat and joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, which Barat had recently founded. She had long wished to be a missionary in America. In 1818 she sailed with four other sisters to the United States, landing at New Orleans and then going up the Mississippi to Missouri at the invitation of Bishop Louis Dubourg. At St Charles she opened a free school, the first west of the Mississippi, although life there was very poor and she struggled to learn English.

She founded more convents and schools in Missouri and Louisiana. In 1841, at the age of seventy-one, she was chosen to go with other sisters to found a school at Sugar Creek, Kansas, among the Potawatomi. She could not learn their language, but they loved her and gave her a name meaning woman who prays always. Because of poor health she had to return to St Charles in less than a year.

She died at St Charles on 18 November 1852. She was beatified in 1940 and canonised by John Paul II in 1988. Her feast is kept on 18 November. Her tomb at St Charles, Missouri, is now a shrine, and she is remembered as one of the pioneers of Catholic education in the American Midwest.

Works and witness

• Joined the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1804
• Sailed to the United States in 1818 with four sisters
• Opened the first free school west of the Mississippi at St Charles
• Worked among the Potawatomi in Kansas in 1841
• Canonised in 1988

Saints from the same country

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joan of Arc, Saint Francis de Sales

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• Louise Callan, The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.