SOME FRUITS OF HER WORK
When Mother Duchesne with her companions, was on her way to Bordeaux to
take passage for the New World, she stopped at the convent of Poitiers.
There, as everywhere, her enterprise excited the deepest interest and
admiration. The children were, of course, eager to see and hear her;
and, in the youthful crowd that gathered around her full of expectancy,
there was one child, not yet in her 'teens, broad-browed, and with eyes
full of earnest thoughtfulness. As she listened to the burning words of
the missionary, she caught the glow of her holy enthusiasm, and felt
that she too would one day be called to follow in her footsteps. This
child was Anna du Rousier. When next she saw Mother Duchesne, it was at
the deathbed of the latter, as already related. When she came to
America, it was with the understanding that, after giving a year to the
visitation of the houses of the Society, she would proceed to South
America, and see how conditions were in various places of that part of
the world, where foundations had been asked for. It can not be doubted
that she earnestly recommended her future mission to Mother Duchesne,
and received from her a fervent promise that she would intercede for it.
The year following her deathbed interview with the saintly Mother she
received orders to set out for Santiago de Chili under the guidance and
protection of a small company of Chilian priests bound for that city,
and to begin a foundation there. When this order reached her, God
permitted that she should be seized with so violent a repugnance for
this mission that, though she did not for a moment think of offering any
objections, it was only after spending an entire night on her knees
before the Blessed Sacrament, in agonized struggles and supplications to
her Divine Master, that He stilled the tempest of temptation, and gave
her the victory. Mother du Rousier was a character of heroic type,
worthy of a place beside even such women as Mother Barat and her great
daughter, Mother Duchesne. It was after a long and dangerous journey,
with Mother Mary McNally, an American professed from the New York
Vicariate, and one lay sister, that she reached her destination, and
began the foundation at Santiago in 1853. At her death in 1880, two
years after celebrating its silver jubilee, she left five houses, four
in Chili and one in Peru, while a sixth was in preparation in the city
of Buenos Aires. At the present time there are two Vicariates on the
South American continent, and a house at Bogota, in the Republic of
Colombia.
We have still to speak of two other offshoots, sprung from the same root
as the North and South American Vicariates. These are the Vicariates of
Mexico and Oceania. The former is due, under the direction of the
Superior General of the Society, to the enterprise and devotedness of
the then Vicar of Louisiana, Reverend Mother Elizabeth Moran, at that
time residing in Grand Coteau, Mother Duchesne's second foundation, of
which she had been a pupil. With a few companions from her own
Vicariate, she began the foundation of Mexico in 1882. About seventeen
years later when she was removed to another field of labor, she left
behind her a fully organized Vicariate comprising eight houses,
including two in Havana and one in Puerto Rico, all founded by herself
except the boarding-school of Havana, which was the work of that other
great religious, Mother Aloysia Hardey, who was herself a pupil of Grand
Coteau, and the foundress of most of the Eastern houses of the Society.
Perhaps the most remarkable of the Religious of the Sacred Heart trained
by Mother Duchesne in person, was Mother Anna Shannon, who was such a
power in Louisiana, especially during the Civil War. She was then in
charge of the Vice-Vicariate of Louisiana and resided in St. Michael's,
while not far away, also fronting the Mississippi River, stood the
old-time Jefferson College, which the calamities of the time had closed.
The war was not yet over when it was reopened by a band of French Marist
Fathers, invited by Bishop Odin, and Madame Shannon, as she was
generally called, with the warmhearted liberality that characterized
her, gave them every assistance in her power. They became the chaplains
of the convent, and were the kindest of neighbors. Ten or twelve years
later, Father Chataignier, one of the Fathers who had reopened the
college, was engaged in missionary work in New Zealand. Having been
consulted by Archbishop Redwood of Wellington, as to the religious
Congregation to which it would be advisable to entrust the academy for
girls he wished to found in his diocese, the good Father at once
proposed the Society of the Sacred Heart. The negotiations which
followed resulted in the foundation of Timaru, made in person by
Reverend Mother Suzanna Boudreau, who had also been educated at Grand
Coteau, and had succeeded Reverend Mother Anna Shannon as Vicar of
Louisiana. At this time, however, she was in charge of the Vicariate of
the West and toward the end of 1879 she set out with a little band of
her own daughters, for the first foundation of the Society of the Sacred
Heart in Oceania. Mother Boudreau was to have returned to St. Louis as
soon as it was organized; but early in the following year, an acute
laryngitis carried her off in a few days. This sorrowful event placed
the stamp of the cross upon the new-born foundation, which has since
grown into a Vicariate of ten houses, including the two recently
established day schools in Japan, at Tokio and Kobe.
Sixty years have gone by since Venerable Mother Duchesne was laid away
to rest, close to the old "Rock Church" adjoining the convent of St.
Charles; but she still lives in the memory of the people among whom she
toiled, and prayed, and suffered. In the convent, the staircase that cut
off a large corner of her cell has been removed to another place; and
that narrow little room, still known as "Mother Duchesne's Cell," has
been converted into a sanctuary in which are kept all the mementoes of
the holy mother, which have not found their way elsewhere. Conspicuous
among those remaining at the convent, is the picture of St. Francis
Regis, which in fulfillment of a vow, she had placed above the altar of
the Church at Florissant. In the community, her virtues are still
recalled, and her actions recounted. The little oratory in the front
garden, often sees the religious on their knees in prayer, beside her
tomb, and it is likewise piously frequented by people of the town, and
of the neighboring country, as also by pilgrims from St. Louis and
elsewhere. Her name is a household word among the Catholics of Missouri,
and her pupils and their descendants have borne it with them, wherever
the vicissitudes of life have carried them. Even the remnants of the
Pottowatomie tribe, now located in the Indian Territory, still speak
with veneration of "The woman who prays always," whom it was the
happiness of their grandfathers to have known. She is one of the
traditions of the country, and has left a stamp upon it so strongly
marked that even the casual traveler, if at all observant, can not fail
to notice it. Catholic France has had a very considerable share in the
upbuilding of the Catholic Church in this country, through the labors of
so many heroic missionaries whom she sent out to us, even in the midst
of her struggles against persecution at home. And among the many gifts
by which she has acquired a title to the gratitude of American
Catholics, one of the greatest was the Venerable Philippine Duchesne.
THE FRANK MEANY CO., PRINTERS. INC., NEW YORK
End of Project Gutenberg's Venerable Philippine Duchesne, by G. E. M.