Founder in America of the first houses of the society of the Sacred
Heart, born at Grenoble, France, 29 August, 1769; died at St. Charles,
Missouri, 18 October, 1852. She was the daughter of Pierr-Francois
Duchesne, an eminent lawyer. Her mother was a Périer, ancestor of
Casimir Périer, President of France in 1894. She was educated by the
visitation Nuns, entered that order, saw its dispersion during the Reign
of Terror, vainly attempted the re-establishment of the convent of
Ste-Marie-d'en-Haunt, near Grenoble, and finally, in 1804, 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 the
apostolate of souls: heathen in distant lands, the neglected and poor at
home. Nature and grace combined to fit her for this high vocation;
education, suffering, above all, the guidance of 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, whence 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." Cold, hunger, and
illness; opposition, ingratitude, and calumny, all that came to try the
courage of this missioner, served only to fire her lofty and indomitable
spirit with new zeal for the spread of truth. Other foundations
followed, at Florissant, Grand Côteau, New Orleans, St. Louis, St.
Michael; and the approbation of the society in 1826 by Leo XII
recognized the good being done in these parts. She yearned to teach the
poor Indians, and old and broken as she was, she went to labour among
the Pottowatomies at Sugar Creek, thus realizing the desire of her life.
Stirred by the recitals of Father De Smet, S.J., she turned her eyes
towards the Rocky Mountain missions; but Providence led her back to St.
Charles, where she died. Thirty-four years of mission toil,
disappointment, endurance, self-annihilation sufficed, indeed, to prove
the worth of this valiant daughter of Mother Barat. She had opened the
road, others might walk in it; and the success hidden from her eyes was
well seen later by the many who rejoiced in the rapid spread of her
order over North and South America. Sincere, intense, generous, austere
yet affectionate, endowed with large capacity for suffering and work,
Mother Duchesne's was a stern character that needed and took the
moulding of Mother Barat. Preliminary steps for her beatification have
already been taken.
Catherine M. Lowth (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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