Old Stuff

Memorial of Rose Philippine Duchesne, virgin

Collect from the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours for November 18, Memorial of Rose Philippine Duchesne, virgin

Born on 29 August 1769, at Grenoble, France, and educated by the Visitation nuns at Sainte Marie d'en Haut, Rose Philippine Duchesne entered the Visitation community at the age of 17. During the Reign of Terror the community was expelled from France, and Philippine returned home. After the Concordat of 1801, she and her companions attemted to rebuild their convent but were unsuccessful. In 1804 she persuaded Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat to accept the convent of Sainte Marie, and Philippine and four others became postulants of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was professed in 1805. In 1818, with four other sisters, she was sent to the United States of America to found the first American house of her Society, a log cabin at Saint Charles, near Saint Louis, Missouri. She opened the first American free school west of the Mississippi, received the first American postulant in 1820 and, by 1828, had founded six houses. Rose Philippine Duchesne resigned as superior, at the age of 71, in order to devote herself to beginning a school for Indians at Sugar Creek. Deteriorating health forced her to resign this much cherished work, and on 18 November 1852, she died, having spent 34 years of her life extending the work of the Society as an international community. She was beatified in 1940 and canonized on 3 July 1988, at Saint Peter's in Rome by Pope John Paul II.

The reading is taken from the common of virgins.

Prayer

Gracious God,
you filled the heart of Philippine Duchesne
with charity and missionary zeal,
and gave her the desire
to make you known among all peoples.
Fill us, who honor her memory today,
with that same love and zeal
to extend your kingdom to the ends of the earth.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Let us praise the Lord.
--And give him thanks.

Posted by billw at November 18, 2002 07:43 AM