Since I have a whole family of "Roses" that I honored the other day with my post on Rose of Lima, I will give you another St. Rose of a more recent vintage -- St. Rose Philippine Duchesne.
Rose Philippine was born in France in 1769. She joined a religious order against her family's wishes when she was a young women. However, during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, the Monastery where she was living was shut down and the sisters dispersed. She continued to live by the Rule of her order at home as she served her family and those suffering from the Reign of Terror, including those imprisoned in the former Monastery.
Once the Catholic Church was again able to operate openly, she tried to reestablish the monastery and later merged with the new order of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1818, at the age of 49, she traveled to America to work as a missionary (yes, young ones, there is life after 40!). She built the first Sacred Heart convent outside of France in a log cabin in Missouri Territory and opened the first free school west of the Mississippi.
In 1841 - now 71 years old - she and other sisters from her order joined the Jesuits in a mission to serve the Potawatomi tribe in eastern Kansas. The children named her Quahkahkanumad, which translates as Woman Who Prays Always. She was only able to stay at the mission for a year before her health forced her to return to the convent in Missouri. She lived for another decade, dying on Nov 18, 1852. Her feast day is Nov. 18.
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