MISSION TO THE POTTOWATOMIE INDIANS
She had been six years at Florissant when Mother de Galitzin arrived as
Visitatrix of the American houses. One of Mother Duchesne's first
petitions to her was to be deposed from her office of Superior, on her
usual plea of her total unfitness for it. To the sincerity of her
estimate of herself, her letters to the Mother Foundress bear ample
testimony. In one of them, for instance, she affirms that she was of the
nature of a servant, "and," she adds, "it takes more than that to make
one fit to govern others." Mother de Galitzin granted her request, and
sent her to St. Louis to take her place in the ranks as a simple
religious. The Superior of the house, Mother Eleonore Gray, was one of
her former novices. Here, for the first time in her life, and to her
intense mortification, one of the best private rooms in the house was
assigned to her, and she was treated with all the respect and deference
due to her. It was a heavy trial to her to be waited upon so continually
and attended to so carefully, especially as it interfered with her dear
practices of poverty and penance. However, her stay in St. Louis was not
long. Early in the year 1841, she had a visit from the great Jesuit
missionary, Father de Smet, whom she loved as a most dear son, while he
revered and loved her as a mother. One of the first things he always
did, when the needs of his missionary work brought him to St. Louis, was
to visit his holy friend; but this time he had a special object in view.
He wanted a foundation of the Religious of the Sacred Heart among the
Pottowatomie Indians, whom the Jesuits had lately taken under their
care. This was for the heroic Mother Duchesne like the blast of a
trumpet for a warhorse. Her apostolic zeal was ablaze in a moment, and
her longing to work among the Indians was as ardent as when she listened
to the discourses of Dom de Lestrange, just thirty-five years
previously, day for day; for the Father's visit took place on the Feast
of Pentecost.
Mother Duchesne's eloquent appeals, with those of Father de Smet,
prevailed with Mother de Galitzin and the Superior General. The
foundation was decided upon; and likewise, though after much hesitation,
Mother Duchesne, in compliance with her eager desire, was allowed to be
one of the foundresses. She was seventy-two years old at this time, and
suffering from many and painful infirmities, but nothing could dampen
her ardor; and Father Verhaegen, when consulted about her going had
said, "Let her come, even though we should have to carry her upon our
shoulders. Her prayers, her mere presence, will draw down the blessing
of Heaven upon our Mission." The four foundresses were Mother Duchesne,
Mother Lucille Mathevon, who was to be the Superior, another choir
religious, and a Canadian lay Sister, who had had some experience in
dealing with Indians. The whole party was under the leadership of Father
Verhaegen.
The Pottowatomies testified their joy at the arrival of the little
missionary band by going out to meet them in gala attire and in all
their war paint. The great red circles around their eyes gave them so
ferocious an expression that the nuns were seized with terror, except
Mother Duchesne, who was beaming with joy, like a mother meeting her
beloved children after a long separation. The task of the nuns was not
an easy one. They had to live at first in a hut which one of the Indians
had vacated in their favor, and to manage without the most elementary
conveniences of civilized life; for, grateful as their new charges were,
they had not yet been reclaimed from the ways and habits of savage life.
Her companions experienced a certain revulsion of feeling during the
first few days; but Mother Duchesne herself was in the joy of her soul,
because she was among her dear savages, and because of the poverty and
exceptional hardships and repulsiveness of her surroundings, which
responded to one of the most powerful attractions of grace in her soul.
In fact, she had never before enjoyed so much sensible consolation,
except, perhaps, at the time of her admission into the Society of the
Sacred Heart.
She had hoped to take her share in the work of the little community, and
she even set herself courageously to the task of acquiring the language
of the Pottowatomies, but she only succeeded in learning a few words and
phrases. These, however, served her in good stead during the winter,
which was severer in those days than it is now. The poor Indians were as
heedless and as lacking in foresight as children, and did not know how
to take care of themselves. Many of them fell sick of throat and lung
diseases, and nearly one hundred of them died, in spite of the best
efforts of the Fathers and the nuns. During this time Mother Duchesne
was very assiduous in her care of them, visiting them in their miserable
huts, assisting and consoling them in their sufferings, and helping them
to die piously. At the same time she prayed ardently for these dear
children of her heart. They were touched beyond measure and would have
laid down their lives for her. To give expression to their gratitude and
admiration, they offered her the best things they could find--living
birds, which they trapped, meat from their hunting, dried pumpkin, ears
of new corn, when it was in season, and eggs from the nests of the
prairie hens. They were delighted when they could offer these gifts to
the "Great Queen of the Great Spirit," as they called her. The other
nuns were "Queens of the Great Spirit," she was the "Great Queen." But
they also had another name for her. They were struck with her appearance
in prayer, and impressed by her intense recollection and the length of
time she devoted to it. As her weakness increased so that she was
compelled to give up her active work by degrees, she prolonged her
prayer, spending many hours every day before the Blessed Sacrament, in
her well-known motionless attitude. The Indians seeing her thus were
filled with awe, and looking upon her as a being more than human, they
called her by a name which meant "the woman who always prays." They
would steal up to her, and kneeling down they would reverently kiss the
hem of her dress, and then withdraw as noiseless as shadows, fearing to
disturb her communings with the Great Spirit. Mother de Galitzin found
her very much prostrated when she visited the mission, in the spring of
1842, but seeing her so happy where she was, she had not the heart to
remove her. Four months later, however, Bishop Peter Richard Kenrick,
Coadjutor of St. Louis, having arrived there for his pastoral
visitation, and finding her so exhausted, declared that to leave her
there would be to condemn her to a speedy death, and resolved to take
her back with him. This was the matter of a heroic sacrifice on her
part, especially as she herself did not realize its necessity; but
seeing that his mind was made up, she obeyed with a good grace. He took
her to St. Charles, where she was welcomed with great rejoicings; but
her Indians never forgot her, and the religious who went later to share
in the labors of the mission, could bear testimony to the veneration in
which she was held among them. Nor did she lose any of the interest she
had always felt in them. She continued to pray for them, appealing
especially in their favor to her great patron, St. Francis Regis.
Moreover, she used all her influence in obtaining supplies for the
mission, sending them clothes and bed quilts, which she made herself, as
also whatever suitable articles of piety were given to her by her
friends.
At St. Charles, Mother Duchesne had the consolation of finding the
office of Superior held by Mother Regis Hamilton, the dearest of the
daughters she had trained in the way of perfection. She could no longer
do any hard work as of old, but she employed her remaining strength in
the service of God and of the community. She presided at the studies of
the children preparatory to their classes; she taught the catechism to
those of the servants who were without proper religious instruction, and
prepared them for the sacraments. She was often seen engaged in the
lighter household labors, and even in the garden when the weather was
favorable. Long after her death the nuns could point out the trees she
had planted with her own hands. We have already mentioned her occupation
in making quilts for the Indians, and the same service she rendered also
to the orphans of the St. Louis house. Her spirit of mortification
showed no decrease as she grew in years. Indeed, it seemed to have
reached the limit of possibility even from her youth, and Mother
Hamilton wisely refrained from interfering with habits which, through
long practice, had become a second nature. Many pages might be filled
with touching anecdotes illustrating her regularity, humility,
obedience, zeal, and all the religious virtues she practised in so
heroic a degree. She spent, as usual, long hours in the chapel in
prayer; and on Sundays, Feast-days, First Fridays, and all Exposition
days, she scarcely left it at all. So notable was her assiduity that the
people of the town designated her as the "Sister of the Blessed
Sacrament." Here also she was sometimes seen with a supernatural light
forming a halo around her head, or shining upon her face.