DUCHESNE, Philippine-Rose, Blessed. - B. at Grenoble on 29 Aug. 1769, d. at St. Charles of Missouri on 18 Nov. 1852. In 1787 she entered the monastery of St. Mary of the Visitation in Grenoble, where she remained as a novice until 1791, when the Visitandines were ordered to secularize or leave the convent. Her father did not permit her to follow the nuns out of France and wanted her back at home.
During the Revolution she displayed all the qualities of her courageous and tenacious character. She visited prisoners and the sick, was in contact with proscribed and hidden priests, and led them, amid endless dangers, to the bedside of the dying. In 1805 D. entered the Society of the Sacred Heart. Her desire was to bring the Society to America, but only after twelve years was she able to obtain consent. Finally, on 21 March 1818 she was appointed superior of the Mission and set sail from Bordeaux with four of her sisters. On 21 Aug. 1818 she was at St. Louis. Unheard-of, discouraging difficulties arose from the climate, illnesses, the environment, and the almost complete lack of means; but nothing bent D.'s most firm faith, and by 1829 five flourishing houses were already established in Louisiana, with a total of 64 nuns and 350 pupils. In 1840 she asked for and obtained release from the office of superior and permission to return as a simple nun to St. Louis. In 1841, at the age of 73, she asked to take part in a new foundation among the Indians, and it was granted to her. But after a year her decline was such that she was recalled to St. Charles of Missouri, where she spent another ten years, "living no longer except for Him who lives for me in the Sacrament," as she herself wrote in one of her letters. She was beatified on 12 May 1940.
Bibliography
Claudia De Sanctis