A French Religious of the Sacred Heart, she came to Missouri at the age of forty-nine and founded schools on the American frontier. In old age she lived among the Potawatomi people, who revered her for her constant prayer.
Life
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in Grenoble, France, in 1769. As a young woman she entered the Visitation nuns, but the French Revolution closed her convent, and she later joined Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's Society of the Sacred Heart.
Long dreaming of mission in America, she sailed in 1818 at the age of forty-nine and opened the Society's first school at St. Charles, Missouri. Amid harsh conditions and poverty she founded several schools, and past the age of seventy she went to the Potawatomi mission in Kansas to live among the people there. They are said to have called her "the woman who prays always." She died in 1852 and was canonized in 1988.
Spirituality
Duchesne's spirituality is persevering prayer and a missionary longing that never faded, even late in life. Unable to master the language, she could do little outwardly, yet her long hours of prayer showed God to the people. Her life testifies that faithfulness is never wasted, even when the fruit comes slowly.
Reflection
Even without a shared language, Duchesne made God known by the way she prayed. To whom would I like to send, through prayer, a love I cannot fully put into words?