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Catholic Saints
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
00:24:37
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769–1852) was a French missionary and a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart who dedicated her life to education and service on the American frontier. After enduring the hardships of the French Revolution, she answered the call to missionary work, establishing schools for Native Americans and settlers in the United States, particularly in Missouri and Kansas. Known for her deep spirituality and devotion, she was called the “Woman Who Prays Always” by the Potawatomi people. Canonized in 1988, her life exemplifies perseverance, cultural bridge-building, and an unwavering commitment to Christ.
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This episode is brought to you by our friends at the Jesuit Refugee Service. They work in 58 countries accompanying and serving forcibly displaced people, providing life changing emergency assistance, education, mental health support and more to millions each year. Get to know their work. Visit jrsusa.org agustin.
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You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith. Hello. Welcome to Catholic Saints. My name is Mary McGean and I'm here with Dr. Arielle Harms. Dr. Ariel, will you please share where we are recording this episode from?
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C
Yes, Mary, we are in Florissant on our new campus here at Augustine Institute. Yes, it's exciting.
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B
We have arrived. How has the last couple of months been here at the Augustine Institute? What has been happening?
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C
It's been really fun, really getting to make this campus our own, right? I mean, when I first visited here in June, just to look at the campus, while I was looking at houses in the area, I was looking at it and thinking, gosh, this is such a big campus and it certainly doesn't look like the Augustine Institute, right? But then by the time we got here and got students on campus in August and now, you know, we've been going through this semester like it's been feeling more and more like the Augustine Institute. So that's been really nice.
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B
No, that's such a good point. And for those that don't know, we are blessed with a new campus here in Florissant, Missouri, about would you say, 25 minutes from outside of St. Louis? And God's providence has just blessed the Gus Institute abundantly as we have a beautiful campus for the students to be living and studying. And the last couple of months we've all been transitioning here to Missouri. So we're so excited and blessed to be here and just so grateful for all the ways God has been paving the path forward for us. So thank you for traveling down the road to Missouri. And I think it's so fitting that this episode is about Saint Rose Philippine Duchenne. She herself lived and served in Missouri. So on this episode of Catholic Saints, we are going to learn about a little bit about her biography, learn more about the legacy you left to the church and of course, some takeaways we have looking to her life and applying it to our own. So let's get started. I feel a little intimidated to talk about Mother Duchenne because her body is just about five minutes away from where I'm now residing in St. Charles, Missouri. And it's just such a rare experience to be living so close to the body of a saint. So very excited to learn more about her and get to know her on a deeper level. So let's start with a basic biography. What should we know about her life?
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C
Sure. Yes. Saint Saint Philippine. We found out today that she went more by Philippine rather than Rose during her lifetime.
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B
Should we break down her name?
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C
Yeah, we could break down her name for people. So she's named after. She was baptized at her baptism, named after Saint Rose of Lima and Saint Philip the Apostle. And so Philippine is just a feminine version of Philip. And she kept that name throughout her life. Unlike some religious who will receive a new name at their religious profession, she kept her baptismal name, but she went, we learned today, more by the Philip part of her name after St. Philip rather than after St. Rose of Lima.
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B
Yes. We learned her closer inner circle would not call her Saint Rose. They would call her either Mother Duchenne or Philippine.
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C
Right.
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B
As well. And fun fact, I told Dr. Ariel Harms I'm currently reading a biography about Philippine Duchenne by Louise Cowan, and it mentioned that she is baptized in a church named St. Louis after the French king. And it almost has a prophetic wink to the land that she would be sent as a missionary.
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C
Right, right. Because she spent a lot of her life here, what, 30 years here in this area. Right. I mean, she was just down the street from us, as we saw today.
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B
So, yes, it's incredible. So where was she born? What was her childhood family life like?
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C
So she was born August 29, 1769 in Grenoble, France. And her family was new rich, so they weren't titled aristocracy, which will be important soon enough.
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B
Right.
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C
But involved in political and commercial life. Her father taught her political skills, which I like to think probably served her well in the, you know, in the frontiers of Missouri here. And her mother taught her a love for the poor, which we see with her throughout her entire life. So her parents sent her to be educated at the Convent of the Visitation, and she loved the life there so much that she decided when she finished school, she was going to enter the Visitation Sisters. So she entered the Visitation Sisters at the age of 19, and she met with opposition from her family because of that. But less than a year later, the convent closed when the French Revolution broke out.
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B
Fascinating. It's also fascinating she has that French Revolution as a backdrop of her vocation and her life. What do you mean again by new rich when you mention that?
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C
Yeah. So her father, rather than having the money handed down in the family. Her father made money through commerce rather than inheriting it.
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B
I did learn in the biography that patron of her heart was St. Francis Xavier. And from a young age, she had this missionary zeal, a missionary spirit within her, which, once again, you can see how God plays that desire in her heart from young age and how it would unveil throughout the rest of her life.
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C
Right, right.
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B
So she entered the order, the Visitation, and then what happened?
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C
So year after, or less than a year after, the convent closed when the French Revolution broke out. But she didn't quit her apostolic work. She continued to take care of the poor and the sick, opened up a school for homeless children, and risked her life helping priests because the church at that time was persecuted.
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B
Right.
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C
So. And when the revolution was over, she and a few of the former Visitation nuns eventually joined the new Society of the Sacred Heart, a new religious community in France.
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B
Okay. And then what was the transition that brought her to the United States?
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C
Yeah, so she had Bishop Dubourg, who was a bishop of the area that was the Louisiana Purchase, went over to France and asked for missionaries for his territory. And her community sent her, and I believe it was four other nuns with her over to. They went to New Orleans and then came up the Mississippi river and landed here, basically, and got off their boat here and started. Got to work immediately. Now, her desire was to work with the Native Americans in the area, but that wasn't what Bishop de Bourgh actually needed, even though he kind of pitched that to them. He needed education in general for the population. So they ended up starting a school here in Florissant. You can actually go to the building where the school was.
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B
Dr. Arielle Harms and I went on a mini pilgrimage earlier today to see the old shrine of Saint Ferdinand, which you could go visit and see the home that Mother Duchesne and some of the sisters, the convention that they lived in, and what was at the first free Catholic school west of the Mississippi, where she would start teaching and educating the children of the Missouri area.
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C
Of the area.
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Yeah.
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So all the kids in the florescent area, she was.
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Yes. And we also learned, I think we were both struck, that was it. A 70 day journey on ship from France.
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C
From France to New Orleans.
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So we were joking. We think like an eight hour flight is long when we're trying to travel across seas. 70 days. Yeah. That is quite the suffering.
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C
That is quite the suffering, yes.
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B
And even just the human embracing of the different landscape and climate. I appreciate how Mother Duchenne, too, is so Relatable. And she comes from this beautiful land of France with rolling hills and some mountains and then rolling on shore of New Orleans. And of course, the weather and the bugs and the humidity, just. Just that human suffering, too, that she gladly, I'm sure, had moments, but entered into as a missionary to America.
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C
Yeah. She writes about St. Charles, Missouri, which. That it was the remotest village in the U.S. yes. Wow. And this was a very different place then. Right. It was the beginning of the Oregon Trail. Right. And so people were. This was. This was kind of the end of civilization.
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B
I know. I think that's a good reminder for me to remember that Missouri, this land in general, was so much more rugged and harsh and harsh winters and, you know, just completely being built up from scratch to really understand the lifestyle and the work that she and her sisters entered into. So what you mentioned a little bit. But can you continue to share what was she known for once she came to Missouri?
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C
Yeah. So her community, they started schools. They were very interested in education, especially for. She was interested in education for the Native Americans. But they did start schools for all of the children in the area. And they had some children that boarded at the school and some children that came just from their families who lived nearby to educate them.
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B
Wonderful. So teaching apostolate. And where can you see the remnants of where she lived today?
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C
Yeah, so there's a few places, because she had a. Actually, the first place that she was here in Missouri was in St. Charles, and then that was the remotest village. And that was very difficult for her. They came back closer to St. Louis, which at that time may have had 10,000 people in it. Right. It wasn't a huge city or anything like that, but it was big for the time. But so they came back here to florissant, closer to St. Louis. So there's. In Florissant, as you were saying, there's the old St. Ferdinand shrine with the church. The original. Well, not the original. I think it's the second instantiation of that parish church. Right. With the school and the convent attached to it. And then in St. Charles, there's also the shrine dedicated to her.
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B
Yes. I've had the opportunity to visit her tomb at the shrine. And actually, as I drive to work every day, I drive past the shrine. So I always ask mother, pray for me as I head to work. But it's just such a unique experience to be living so close to the life of the body of a saint. It feels so rare and unique to me in America, in the United States.
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C
It is right I mean, today when we were at the shrine, we could walk where she walked. And for us in the United States, that is kind of a different feeling. We don't get that very often. That's. Unfortunately, the Europeans seem to have more saints. The church is older there.
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B
That's why. Yes, yes. Something for us too, to strive. What else about her life before we switch to some legacy that she left to her church?
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C
Yeah. So she finally did get the opportunity at the age of 72, so almost 20 years after she came to the United States to minister to the Potawatomi tribe in Sugar Creek, Kansas. And so she spent a year with them. She wanted to teach them, but she never really learned their language. And so they talk. They called her affectionately, the woman who prays always, because that's what she would do. Her prayers were what was supporting her sisters who were actually teaching the Potawatomi.
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B
Yes, no, that's right. I had the opportunity to go to this land in Sugar Creek, Kansas. So it's outside Kansas City. I did a pilgrimage with the Community of the Lamb where we walked from this shrine of Saint Rose Philippine Duchenne to the land of the Potawatomi. And you can see the rock that Mother Duchenne would sit and pray her rosary. And they said they even had dug up a rosary near the rock. So it was very likely that was actual rock. She would pray. And it was on that rock where some of the natives would see her. And they actually put smaller rocks on her habit and then come back later to see if the rocks had moved at all. And they hadn't. And so it was, I guess, evidence. It was a little experiment to see if she ever moved from her praying, praying station. But how she started to get that name, the woman who prays always from that area. And you can see the foundation, the stones of where the convent was on that land and also where the priest lived in Sugar Creek. So it's definitely recommend visiting if you're in the area.
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C
Yeah. So she was only with them for a year. And because she was older and her health wasn't that great, she came back to Florissant and spent the last 10 years of her life in her retirement, which I'm sure is a religious in her community, she wasn't very inactive at that point. She just would have been less active with the more difficult work of the community. Right. And died in 1852 at the age of 83.
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B
Okay, beautiful.
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C
And then she was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
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B
Okay, 1988. How would you say she shaped the church today in the United States?
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C
Well, I would especially say we think of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton as the foundress of Catholic schools. St. Rose Philippine Duchenne was actually working at a similar time, but out here in the Wild West. Right. So her founding of schools, not much after St. Elizabeth Seton here in St. Charles is the foundation of Catholic education in the Midwest, for sure. And maybe even the foundation of education in this area, too. Right. I mean, there wasn't. There weren't. Given the state of the frontier in the country at that point, school was not the biggest need in the. You know, that the families would have looked for. Right. They were looking for survival, food, shelter, those kinds of things. Right. Very different times. So her community's focus on education would have brought a different perspective to the area as well.
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B
That makes sense. What do you think we can learn from Mother Duchenne today?
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C
So for our personal. For a personal example for us today, I think we can look at her determination to be a missionary. Right. That was very strong, especially as we toured her convent and the church today to see, like, the hardships that she put up with in order to bring the faith to people who didn't have it.
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B
Right.
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And the education and the faith to people who didn't have it. So I think that can be an example to us today. Like, when it's hard to share our faith, we can be inspired by her example. I think we can also look at her determination to serve in whatever way we're able.
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Right.
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C
When she got to. I imagine it was very difficult for her when she got to the Potawatomi tribe. And I understand that she had a hard time learning English in the first place. Right. When she first came to the United States and then to get to the Potawatomi tribe and realize that she wasn't able to learn their language and so would never be able to fulfill that desire to teach the Native Americans as she. I mean, that was one of the reasons she wanted to come to the United States in the first place. Right. But she took that desire and used it differently when she. When she couldn't do it, fulfill it in the way she wanted. She took it and took it to prayer. And her prayer sustained her community's work there with the Potawatomi tribe. Yeah.
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B
No, thank you. I think that's such a powerful witness about her life in particular, that she had this great desire to be a missionary, particularly to Native Americans. And initially I get discouraged. I'm like, what? It wasn't until in her early 70s, she was able to go to that land. And so I initially kind of wrestle with that. But I love what you're saying of how. How she's a witness of giving the desires to the Lord and seeing how he molds and shifts them and fulfills them in his unique providence and unique way. But to your. To your point, too, just her power of intercession, I believe. Didn't they say today that they knew the bishop who approved her appointment knew that if they had mother there on the land of the Potawatomi, that their outpost would be a success through her intercession and the power of her prayer, even if she wasn't able to physically do a lot of manual labor and teach, like you mentioned, that her intercession would be the source of fruitfulness for that mission work.
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C
Yes, yes. And Father Pierre de Smet, who was a missionary to the Native Americans all through this territory. Right. What we looked at today said he basically knew all of the community, all of the tribes between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains and had visited them all, too. Knew that with her prayers, his missions would be a success as well.
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B
Very powerful. Why do you think it's important to visit the tomb or the body of Essene today?
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C
Yes. Because it's such a unique experience for us here in the United States. Right. There's not that many. There's not that many places we can go in the United States where we're walking in the footsteps of a saint or visiting the tomb of a saint. Right. But it really brings home to us the truth of the doctrine of the communion of the saints. Right. When we talk about that, I think we can think about it very abstractly. Right. We can know that there are saints in heaven, but their connection to us and their historicity seems very far removed. But when we're actually standing in a place where a saint stood, she was incorrupt. Saint Rose Philippine Duchenne. When they first exhumed her to start her canonization process, they found that her body had not corrupted. So you can see that miracle of preservation there, as well as her just being able to see that. Yes, this was a real person with flesh and blood, just like me. Right. And it makes that much that call to holiness that we all have more, I think, more within our reach.
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B
Absolutely. I mean, we even got to see the room where she slept when she was here in Florissant at the old shrine of Saint Ferdinand. It was behind a closet door, right underneath the stairs. And you could place your prayer intentions in that space, but it was pretty tiny. It wasn't much bigger than this table that we're sitting at. Right.
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C
She chose that room, though. I don't know if you saw this, because it was the closest to the chapel that she could put a bed. So it let her be still close to the chapel, close to Jesus in the tabernacle, even while she slept, so that her prayers, you know, really didn't stop.
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B
Yeah, yeah. No, I appreciate that perspective of just being where seeing their body and walking the land where they walked is convicting for me more deeply of. Okay, we too are called to be saints. It's. It seems so. It's unattainable that when we really can see, they walked this lane, too. They endured way greater sufferings than I currently have in my own life. And it's very convicted for the call of holiness that we are all invited into through God's grace and invitation. I had a few favorite quotes from Mother Duchenne from her biography. May I share them with you?
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C
Oh, of course.
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B
Okay. 1. She said, Let us bear our cross and leave it to God to determine the length and the width.
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C
That's beautiful. So many times we want to grab onto. No, I'm going to do this type of penance or that type of penance. But God chooses our crosses for us, and it's better for him to do that and for us to accept what comes our way.
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B
Yeah. And they tend to be more purifying that way, too, which is hard. As I'm learning more about Saint Rose Philippine Duchenne, her life also seemed to just be full of change and not initially her preference, in a sense. You know, when she wanted to enter religious life or when she wanted to serve the natives, or just all of these desires seem to be derailed a little bit in different timing than she maybe would have executed herself. And for me, that's just. Her deep trust in God's providence is a very good reminder for when things might not be planned or when we are going through discouragement or just derailing of our hope that she is a great witness of God's providence and wisdom is way beyond ours, and we can enter into them through his grace and with joy.
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C
Yes, yes.
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B
And then. Okay, to that point, here's another great quote from Mother Dijon. We may not understand his will for us in time, but in eternity the veil will be drawn and we shall see that he acted only for our happiness. So I think just all the little discouragements or delays of dreams, she is close to suffering and entering into that place spiritually to intercede for us as well.
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C
Yes. That's a beautiful quote. Very beautiful. Thank you.
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B
Well, we are so blessed to live so close to the saint and have her as a patron here. As a Missouri pioneer from France, as we are also trying to be Catholic evangelist in this new land, we greatly look to her and her life for inspiration and for her prayers. So, Saint Rose Philippine Duchenne, pray for us.
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C
Pray for us.