Her Entire Life In The World!
Phillipine Duchesne was the founder of the first houses of the Society of the Sacred Heart, in America, and was born at Grenoble, France, August 29, 1769; died at St. Charles, Missouri, on October 18, 1852. She was educated by the Visitation Nuns. In 1804, she accepted the offer of Mother Barat, to receive her community into the Society of the Sacred Heart. From early childhood the dream of Philippine had been great.
Mother Barat trained her to become the pioneer of her order in the New World. In 1818 Mother Duchesne set out with four companions for the missions of America. Bishop Dubourg welcomed her to New Orleans, where she sailed up the Mississippi to St. Louis, finally settling her little colony at St. Charles. "Poverty and Christian heroism are here", she wrote, "and trials are the riches of priests in this land." Phillipine was a very, very wise woman.
She was eager to teach the poor Indians, and old and broken as she was, she went to work among the Potowatomies at Sugar Creek. A couple years later, in St. Charles, she died. She had opened the road to others. We will never forget, what she did for the Society of the Sacred Heart.
Links to pages on the life and times of St. Philippine Duchesne below
