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Los niños juegan mientras los participantes de la procesión esperan para ingresar al Santuario de Santa Rosa Filipina Duchesne para la adoración. / Crédito: Jonah McKeown/CNA
CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
El 18 de noviembre, la Iglesia Católica celebra el día de la fiesta de Santa Rosa Filipina Duchesne, una hermana religiosa francesa que llegó a los Estados Unidos como misionera en el siglo XIX.
Rose was born on Aug. 29, 1769, in Grenoble, France. On the day of her baptism, she received the names Philip, honoring the apostle, and Rose, honoring St. Rose of Lima. She was educated at the Convent of the Visitation of Ste. Marie d’en Haut and became drawn to contemplative life. At the age of 18, she became a novice at the convent.
During the revolution in France, Rose’s community was dispersed and she ended up returning to her family home. After the Concordat of 1801, she tried to rebuild her community’s monastery but was unable to do so.
In 1804, Rose heard of a new congregation — the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She became a novice in the society that same year.
A pesar de su gran deseo de vida contemplativa, Rose también sintió un llamado a la obra misionera.
En una carta she wrote to Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat, the foundress of the society, Rose described an experience she had during adoration: “I spent the entire night in the New World … carrying the Blessed Sacrament to all parts of the land … I had all my sacrifices to offer: a mother, sisters, family, my mountain! When you say to me ‘now I send you,’ I will respond quickly, ‘I go.’”
In 1818, Rose was finally sent to do missionary work. Bishop Louis William Valentine DuBourg, the St. Louis area’s first bishop, was looking for a congregation of educators to help him evangelize the children of the diocese. At St. Charles, near St. Louis, Rose founded the first house of the society outside of France.
Ese mismo año, Rose y otras cuatro hermanas abrieron la primera escuela gratuita para niños nativos americanos en los Estados Unidos. Hacia 1828 Rose había fundado seis escuelas.
El santo una vez dijo: “You may dazzle the mind with a thousand brilliant discoveries of natural science; you may open new worlds of knowledge which were never dreamed of before; yet, if you have not developed in the soul of the pupil strong habits of virtue, which will sustain her in the struggle of life, you have not educated her.”
Rose always carried a desire to serve Native Americans. In 1841, at the age of 71, she established a school for Potawatomi girls in Sugar Creek, Kansas. She spent a year with the Potawatomi, spending much of her time in prayer because she was unable to help with much of the physical work. They gave her the name “Quah-kah-ka-num-ad,” which means “woman who is always praying.”
En 1842, Rose regresó a San Carlos y murió allí el 18 de noviembre de 1852, a la edad de 83 años. Fue declarada santa por el Papa Juan Pablo II el 3 de julio de 1988, y está enterrada en el Santuario de Santa Rosa Filipina Duchesne en St. Charles, Missouri.
This story was first published on Nov. 18, 2024, and has been updated.
