Tote bag from the canonization tour of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne
in 1988. Gift of Joan Kiburz.

The current display in the Library and Research Center reading room complements the History Museum’s Vatican Splendors exhibit. The display explores objects in our collection pertaining to Catholics in the St. Louis area.

Although there are only nine American saints, the St. Louis metropolitan region can claim one. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769–1852) grew up and entered religious life in Grenoble, France (which Americans may recall as the scene of the 1968 Winter Olympics). After the visit to France of William Louis DuBourg, bishop of Louisiana, who requested the assistance of missionaries in the Mississippi River Valley, Mother Duchesne and a group of nuns sailed to America in 1818. Following a stay of several weeks with the Ursulines in New Orleans, the women settled in St. Charles, Missouri. Although Mother Duchesne had wanted to work with native peoples in America since she was a small child, she was ordered to start a school for local white children. The Academy of the Sacred Heart was opened in 1818 in St. Charles. Financial hardship caused Mother Duchesne to relocate the academy to Florissant in 1819, but it returned to the same site in St. Charles in 1835. She took on administrative duties for all the Mississippi Valley sisters.

In 1840, she asked to be relieved of her duties. A mission to the Potawatomi in the Kansas Territory was just being launched, allowing her for a short time to achieve her childhood dream of working with American Indians. They were impressed with her piety and gave her the name “woman who prays always.” She returned to the St. Louis area, where she died in 1852 at age 83. Three years after her burial, her remains were exhumed for transfer to a new oratory, and it was found that her body had not deteriorated in the normal manner. Mother Rose was beatified in 1940 and declared a saint in 1988. A group from the St. Louis area traveled to Rome for the celebration of sainthood, and one member carried the tote bag you see in the photo.

Incidentally, the convent building in Grenoble where Philippine Duchesne began her religious life is now the historical museum for its region. In 2006, its curator traveled to St. Louis to study the furniture and museums of our area, and the highlight of her trip was her visit to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles.

—Anne Woodhouse, Curator of Domestic Life