St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, November 18
People annoying you lately? Call upon the intercession of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, whose life emphasized to avoid being overly critical, practice tolerance, embrace imperfection, and pray others can endure our own flaws and annoyances.
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in 1769 into a prominent family in France. At 18, she joined a group of nuns in Grenoble without telling her parents, but when the French Revolution broke out the religious house was forced to close, and she had no choice but to return home.
She continued, however, to live the vows of a religious by her actions – helping those who suffered due to the war, never losing her focus on Christ, and unceasingly praying to live through those tragic times so she could return to her dream of becoming a nun.
After the war, because of her total selfless dedication to serve others and God, her parents gave her their blessing to join the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1804. Her next goal was to be a missionary and bring the Church to the Americas. After waiting 14 years, she was finally called upon to leave Europe for the US, where she would do charitable work throughout the Louisiana Territory, create schools for girls throughout the Missouri region, and also minister to Native Americans.
When she retired from her administrative duties at the age of 71, she opened a school for Native Americans of the Potawatomi tribe, whose name for her meant “Woman Who Prays Always.”
She had the ability to gracefully humble those in her presence, counseling, “Let us try not to be exacting with other people, but rather to pass over in silence those thousand little annoyances that tend to irritate us. For we know that no one is perfect in this life, and we must put up with the defects of others as they put up with ours.”
She was no nonsense, which was likely an unwritten prerequisite for her ministry. As you ask her to intercede for you on her feast day, keep in mind her attitude, “Let us bear our cross and leave it to God to determine the length and the weight.”
