Produced by Michael Gray
[Frontispiece: MOTHER PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE]
Venerable Philippine Duchesne
BY
G. E. M.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE
AND WORK OF THE FOUNDRESS
OF THE SOCIETY OF THE
SACRED HEART IN AMERICA
NEW YORK
THE AMERICA PRESS
1914
NIHIL OBSTAT
ANGELUS MARIANI, S.C., ADV.
_Sacr. Rit. Congregationis Assessor_
NIHIL OBSTAT
REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.L.
_Censor_
IMPRIMATUR
JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY
Archbishop of New York
COPYRIGHT 1914
BY
THE AMERICA PRESS
_In accordance with the decrees of Urban VIII. and other Sovereign
Pontiffs, we hereby declare that the terms holy and saintly, as applied
to the Venerable Philippine Duchesne, or other personages mentioned in
the following pages, are used merely in their ordinary and untechnical
sense, without any thought of anticipating the decision of the Church
which alone is empowered to pronounce authoritatively in such matters._
PREFACE.
There have been many heroic figures in the history of American
Catholicity. The sowing of the faith in our beloved land was not
accomplished lightly. Anguish of soul and weariness of body were
required of our pioneers, no less than of those of other lands. Our
predecessors in this portion of God's vineyard left home and kindred and
friends and cast themselves on a strange shore, wanderers for God's
cause, giving their lives in labor and anguish of spirit, that the glad
tidings of salvation might be spread far and wide.
Some of these folk were martyrs in very truth. Through the mercy of
Christ their heart's blood has sanctified our soil. Others by living
their length of days in the midst of privations and sorrows, that Christ
might be known and glorified, fell little short of the martyrdom of
blood itself. The memory of these still lives, enshrined in hearts that
love them for their tireless zeal and their dauntless courage. Of such
pioneers was the Venerable Philippine Duchesne, a truly valiant woman,
to whom the American Church owes a debt of gratitude too great for
payment.
The following pages are too few to give more than a glimpse of her
heroic labors, but they have caught inspiration from their subject, and
something, too, of her fragrant piety. No one will read them without
admiration for one who was so weak and yet so strong, so humble, and yet
so daring in work for God.
Mother Duchesne has a lesson for this age of softness and indolence. She
has shown us the way to heroism and offers us motives for entering
thereon. For this gratitude is due. This sketch is conceived in a spirit
of thankfulness, a tribute of appreciation that will speak a clear,
forceful message to sad hearts and selfish hearts and timorous souls,
inspiring all with great ideals and holy ambitions to do a mite for the
leader, Christ.
R. H. T.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I Volunteers for American Missions
II First Schools in New World
III Trials at Florissant
IV St. Michael's Established
V Serious Crosses
VI Mission to the Pottowatomie Indians
VII Affection for Mother Barat
VIII Last Days
IX Some Fruits of Mother Duchesne's Work
CHAPTER I
VOLUNTEERS FOR THE AMERICAN MISSIONS
In the early annals of the Catholic Church in this country, no name
stands more preeminent than that of the Venerable Philippine Duchesne.
She was one of the first, and altogether the greatest, among the
spiritual daughters of the Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat, so well known
as the Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart. The pioneer of that
Institute in the New World, it was in the midst of sorrow, and penury,
and strenuous toil, that she cast the seed of the harvest whose
plentiful sheaves are carried with joy by those who have come after her.
She was a valiant cooperator in the work of the Catholic missionaries
during the early part of the last century, and American Catholics can
scarcely fail to be interested in her story.
She was born in Grenoble, France, August 29, 1769, the same year as
Napoleon Bonaparte. Her father, Pierre Francois Duchesne, was a
prosperous lawyer, practising in the Parliament, or law court of
Grenoble, the capital of the Province of Dauphiny, while her mother,
Rose Perrier, belonged to a family of wealthy merchants of the same
city. Pierre Francois Duchesne had adopted the false teachings of
Voltaire and his school, but his wife was very pious, and carefully
brought up her children in the love and fear of God. Philippine was the
next to the last in a family of six. From her earliest years she was
noted for her serious turn of mind. One of her chief pleasures was
reading, but even this had to be of a serious kind. Roman history was an
especial favorite, but what she loved most of all was the lives of the
saints, particularly the martyrs. Another of her pleasures was to assist
the poor. All of her pocket money, with everything else that she could
dispose of, went to them, and she loved to distribute her alms with her
own hand.
At the age of twelve she was placed as a pupil at Sainte Marie d'en
Haut, the Visitation Convent of her native city, to be prepared for her
first Holy Communion. The remarkable spirit of prayer, of which she had
given very early evidence, developed itself here, and her happiest
moments were those she was permitted to spend in adoration before the
Blessed Sacrament. A diligent and conscientious student, so ardent was
her piety, that she was allowed by the kind nuns the privilege of making
her morning meditation and reciting the Office in choir with them. The
year after her admission into the school she made her First Communion,
and it was on this happy occasion that she heard the call to a perfect
life. Her parents, suspecting what was in her mind, removed her from the
Convent. She silently acquiesced in this decision, keeping her own
counsel, and continuing her studies with great success, in company with
her cousins, the young Perfiers, who were afterward at the head of a
great banking business in Paris, under the rule of the first Napoleon.
After four years of patient waiting, in the hope of obtaining her
parents' consent, and convinced at last that they never would grant it,
she decided that it was time to act, and entered the novitiate of the
Visitation. Her family became somewhat reconciled to her choice, after
striving in vain to induce her to return home; but when the time for her
profession came, her father absolutely forbade her to make it, on
account of the dangerous political conditions of the time.
Four years later, in 1792, when the revolutionary storm was at its
height, religious communities were being everywhere expelled from their
homes, and Monsieur Duchesne withdrew his daughter from her convent,
which was soon converted into a prison, and went to reside with his
family in the Chateau of Granne, situated in a retired part of the
country. By this time all her sisters were married, except the youngest,
a child in her 'teens; and when her mother was overtaken by her last
illness, she it was who cared for her with devoted affection, and
finally closed her eyes in death. After this the family possessions were
divided among the children, and Philippine surrendered her share to the
others, reserving only a small pension, barely sufficient for her needs.
This business being settled, she removed to a modest apartment in
Grenoble, in order to be able to devote herself to works of mercy. Her
ardent charity and intrepid energy found a wide field of action in those
calamitous times. She visited and succored the unfortunate victims
doomed to the guillotine, with whom the prisons were crowded. She
ministered to the sick, and sought in their hiding places, the devoted
priests who would not abandon their posts, to bring them to the bedside
of the dying. She did all this at the constant risk of her life, often
hearing sounds and witnessing sights that made her shudder with horror.
As soon as the revolutionary storm had spent its fury somewhat, she was
enabled to turn her attention to the neglected boys she found in the
streets, assembling them in her own lodgings to teach them to read and
write, and above all, to prepare them for the Sacraments.
At last, when the advent of Napoleon to power restored political and
social order, Philippine Duchesne who, during all these years, had
considered herself as irrevocably consecrated to the service of God,
observing the rules and customs of the Visitation as closely as the
adverse circumstances of the time would permit, resolved to reestablish
in their old home the surviving members of the community of Sainte Marie
d'en Haut, and resume a religious life with them. She obtained
possession of the convent through the influence of her cousins, the
Perriers, but her attempt to reorganize the community was not
successful. In the meantime, however, several companions had gathered
around her, forming a little community with the title of "Daughters of
Faith," under the direction of the Vicar General of Grenoble, the Abbe
Rivet. This was in 1803 and the following year.
In the meantime, Madame Duchesne had heard, through the Abbe Rivet, of
the Society of the Sacred Heart recently founded by Mother Madeleine
Sophie Barat, under the guidance of Father Joseph Varin. It was through
the latter that she applied for admission into the new Society. Father
Varin, in reporting the case to the holy Foundress, declared that Madame
Duchesne was a soul worth seeking for even to the end of the world. Lack
of space does not permit us to dwell upon the beautiful humility,
submission and childlike docility this valiant woman displayed in her
intercourse with her new superior, who was ten years younger than
herself, or her joy at finding herself under religious discipline and
obedience. Nor can we stop to describe her heroic devotedness, zeal and
charity toward all; her incredible activity, her self-immolation, the
wonderful spirit of prayer that held her motionless the livelong night
before the Tabernacle, when holy obedience allowed her the privilege.
The ten years that followed her profession were spent at Sainte Marie
d'en Haut, toiling with an unflagging energy vivified and made fruitful
by her intimate union with God. It was during that interval that the
death of her father occurred. In his last illness, she surrounded him
with the most loving care, and had the consolation of bringing him back
to the faith of his baptism, and seeing him atone for the errors of a
lifetime by a sincere repentance and an edifying end.
In the depths of her heart, Mother Duchesne had felt from the first an
intense longing to devote herself to the evangelization of the barbarous
tribes still sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death; but
hitherto she had not seen any opening in that direction. So she was
patient and put out her hands to all the strong things that Divine
Providence placed in her way. One day, however, the illustrious Dom
Augustin de Lestrange, Abbot of La Trappe, visited Sainte Marie d'en
Haut, on his return from a tour among the North American missions. It
was on the feast of Pentecost, a circumstance that did not escape the
piety of Madame Duchesne; and the account he gave of the labors, dangers
and fatigues endured by the missionaries in the New World, communicated
a new and almost uncontrollable intensity to her apostolic yearnings.
After this, she was possessed by one thought and one desire, that of
devoting herself to the conversion of the savages of America. A few days
later, she wrote to Mother Barat to tell her of Dom de Lestrange's visit
and of the ardent desires his discourses had aroused in her heart for
the missions of America in particular. Mother Barat was delighted, but
insisted that she must school herself to patience, until some
providential opening should offer. For this she waited twelve long
years, but with what burning desires, what tears and prayers! It would
take too long to relate the circumstances which led to the visit of Mgr.
Louis Valentin Dubourg, the newly consecrated Bishop of Louisiana, and
describe the touching scene, when Mother Barat, in presence of the
humble yet ardent entreaties of her strong-souled daughter, recognized
the will of God, and gave the consent she implored, to let her have a
share in the missionary labors of the zealous prelate in the far-off
region of Louisiana.
In the hearts of God's saints, joy and sorrow are in close alliance.
Mother Duchesne was overwhelmed with joy on seeing the realization of
her ardent and long-cherished desires; but a midnight blackness settled
upon her soul, when she found herself about to sail away from the shores
of sunny France, leaving behind her all that her loving heart held so
dear, and with the conviction that the parting was final, as far as this
life was concerned. But her strong spirit did not flinch for an instant,
and the world would never have known how keenly she felt the sacrifice,
were it not for a few lines in one of her letters to Mother Barat. Her
companions were Madame Octavie Berthold, a fervent convert, whose father
had been secretary to Voltaire; Madame Eugenie Aude, a young lady whose
grace and elegance had been admired at the court of Savoy, and two lay
sisters of tried virtue. After a tedious voyage of ten weeks in a small
sailing vessel, they reached New Orleans on the Feast of the Sacred
Heart, May 29, 1818, and as soon as it was possible, they set out for
St. Louis in one of the primitive steamboats of the time, a trip of six
weeks, with numberless inconveniences and a very rough set of
fellow-passengers.