Philippine Duchesne has a message for today's world in which the rich seem to be growing richer and the poor to be growing poorer. It is a message of justice and love for all people. It was for this conviction that Philippine, a Religious of the Sacred Heart missionary, became the fourth United States saint in 1988. This book is a bold historical biography of a remarkable woman who struggled her entire life to enflesh God's love and care in human situations. It opens with a critical discussion and forthright examination of how class, gender, and race have been influential factors in the selection of saints, and then details Philippine's life with its many failures and many achievements. It shows how this wealthy woman who belonged to a politically prominent French family decided to dedicate her life and gifts to the poor. It examines her difficulties as Sacred Heart's first missionary in the new world and it tells how this courageous pioneer woman provided free education for those who had long been denied the privilege--young women, the poor, and native Americans. This eminently readable biography provides a clear and scholarly assessment of Duchesne's religious and social world that is ideal for students and professors of U.S. church history. It raises important questions about women, the poor, and marginalized groups in Duchesne's time that are still pertinent to ask today.

Two hundred years ago, Rose Philippine Duchesne set out across the Atlantic to establish the Society of the Sacred Heart and educate the children in the new world. Opening the first Catholic school west of the Mississippi, Mother Duchesne, known as "the woman who prays always," crossed frontiers to bring faith, love, and education to the world. From a convent in France to the frontier of the New World... a child and then a nun in a convent boarding school dreamt of bringing the Gospel to the native peoples. She persevered through Revolution, uncertainty, and long years of waiting, finally to follow her dream on the Missouri frontier, only to find it not at all what she had imagined. The life and relationships of Rose Philippine Duchesne reveal the heart and soul of a pioneer woman of faith on fire with love of God, in the context of the rapidly-expanding settlement of the Midwest in the first half of the nineteenth century, and its catastrophic effects on the native peoples in its wake.

This new addition to the popular guidebook series explores women's experiences and the impact of their activities on the history and landscape of St. Louis. When the city was founded, most St. Louisans believed that "a woman's place is in the home," in the house of her father, husband, or master. Over the years, women pushed out the boundaries of their lives into the public arena, and in doing so they changed the face of St. Louis. In Her Place is a guide to the changing definition of a woman's place in St. Louis, beginning with the colonial period and ending with the 1960s. Each chapter explores the experiences of women during a specific time period and identifies the sites of some of their public activities on a map of the city created from historical sources. Along the way, readers will meet such significant St. Louis women as Harriet Scott, Susan Blow, Edna Gellhorn, and Philippine Duchesne and learn about the activities of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, the Sisters of Charity, the League of Women Voters, and the Harper Married Ladies' Club. The book also includes four tours of the St. Louis region addressing the themes of the book and identifying significant buildings, homes, and other key sites. Current photographs will help readers locate the sites on detailed maps. An up-to-date bibliography and resource listing make this an invaluable guide for anyone interested in studying the history of women in the region.

"Rose Philippine Duchesne dreamed of being a missionary. She wanted to travel to the United States to work and pray with Narive Americans. Read Rose's story. Do you dream, like Rose, about helping others?"--Page 4 of cover

Saint Philippine Duchesne and four religious companions of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus came from France to Louisiana in 1818 with the express desire of working among Native Americans to bring them knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ for them. After many years of educating the children of European settlers, Philippine finally realized her dream when she was sent to an encampment of the Potawatomi at Sugar Creek, Kansas. Her time among them was limited to one year; however, her sisters, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, continued to work among the Potawatomi for thirty-eight more years. This book is a carefully researched account of the life and work of these sisters among the Native Americans, the difficulties of adaptation of European women to frontier conditions, and the movement across Kansas with their people as the Potawatomi were pushed westward. Although the life of Saint Philippine has been studied extensively, until Maureen Chicoine undertook the research for this book, no complete account of the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart to the Potawatomi existed. The book will shed light on a little known apostolic ministry of the Society in America in the nineteenth century.

Sister Karen Olson has written a concise biography for middle school students of Philippine Duchesne, one of the few canonized saints of the Catholic Church who lived and worked in the United States. Young people will find information and inspiration in Saint Philippine's story.

When Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in Grenoble, the beautiful gateway to the French Alps, in 1769, no one knew she’d eventually be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. When she went to the Sisters of the Visitation convent, Ste. Marie d’en Haut, to study for her First Holy Communion at age twelve, she consecrated herself to God. That was the happiest day of her life. At age eighteen, she asked to join the sisters, and while her father did not approve at first, he eventually began to realize how happy Philippine was. During the French Revolution, the government outlawed any and all religious congregations, so all convents, monasteries, and Catholic schools were closed. Philippine kept busy teaching her cousins, visiting the sick, and teaching catechism to the poor children she met in the streets. Finally, after twelve years of praying and hoping to go to the New World, in 1817, Bishop William Valentine DuBourg, bishop of Louisiana, came to visit the convent to ask for help for his American missions. Philippine threw herself at his feet and begged to be invited, and against all odds, she established religious communities in the United States to spread the word of the Lord.

Complementing the new permanent exhibition at the Missouri Historical Society, this anthology gathers over three centuries of writings on St. Louis by 100 individuals who have been inspired to describe the physical and cultural essence of this region. The volume contains excerpted selections from all genres--travel diaries, poetry, fiction, journalism, drama, and rare out-of-print and previously unpublished archival material--including poems by Angus Umphraville, from the first volume of verse published west of the Mississippi, and newspaper articles by Theodore Dreiser when he was a beat reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Other compelling excerpts were authored by such notables as Auguste Chouteau, Charles Dickens, William Wells Brown, William T. Sherman, Sara Teasdale, T. S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, Fanny Hurst, William S. Burroughs, Miles Davis, Nzotake Shange, John Lutz, Carl Phillips, and Quincy Troupe. A biographical introduction precedes each entry to place the author and the excerpt in the proper historical context. The content of Seeking St. Louis was enriched by the involvement of several of the St. Louis area's foremost literary experts--Robert Boyd, Jan Garden Castro, Gerald Early, Wayne Fields, and Karen Goering--who served as contributing editors.

This book also explores Sophie Barat's spiritual journey, from her dark Jansenistic roots to her belief in a loving, warm and tender God, as expressed in devotion to the Sacred Heart."--BOOK JACKET.