Sister, Sister

Holy cakes on both sides of the river.

Being that it is March and we are celebrating “Women of Character, Courage  and Commitment” it seems right to celebrate the woman who lived her life displaying  "Poverty and Christian heroism” St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. 

Duchesne was a Roman Catholic nun, who was born to a well to do family in Grenoble, France. Despite her family’s protests,  she entered the order of the Visitation. Because of the French Revolution, she had to  leave her convent.

In 1804, she joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, and met  St. Madeleine Sophie Barat , who  would be her lifelong friend, and  who sent her to the United States in 1818. At 49, she thought this would be her work. With four nuns, she spent  11 weeks at sea en route to New Orleans, and seven weeks more on the Mississippi to St. Louis.

She then met one of the many disappointments of her life. The bishop had no place for them to live and work among Native Americans. Instead, he sent her to what she sadly called "the remotest village in the U.S.," St. Charles, Missouri.  From the convent and school, she founded at St. Charles, Mo.—later moved to Florissant, Mo.—she traveled over a wide area, founding schools for girls, doing charitable work, and finally ministering to Native Americans.

When St. Rose Philippine Duchesne was at Florissant,  she was assigned to the St. Ferdinand parish that was established in 1789. The parish has a rich and deep history with the St. Louis area . Both The Old St. Ferdinand’s Shrine and  The Shrine of St. Philippine Duchesne are beautiful  places to reflect on the pioneer past.

Thank you Rich, guest blogger.

Cake artist
Old Saint Ferdinand Shrine
Megan Rieke

Nineteen and Twenty down 230 to go.