One of the first of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat’s spiritual daughters, Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in 1769 in Grenoble, France. Feeling a call to monastic life, she became a novice at the Convent of the Visitation of Ste. Marie d’en Haut when she was eighteen years old, only to be sent home following the dispersal of her community during the French Revolution. Learning of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Duchesne joined as a novice alongside those who remained from her previous institution, and was filled with the desire for missionary work. In 1818 this desire took her to St. Charles, near St. Louis, Missouri, where she founded the first house of the Society of the Sacred Heart outside of France. Over the next decades she founded more houses, going on to open a school for Native Americans, before passing away in 1852.

Sources:

G. E. M. Venerable Philippine Duchesne. New York: The America Press, 1914. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32165/32165-h/32165-h.htm.

“Rose-Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852) - Biography.” Vatican. Accessed August 14, 2025. https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints /ns_lit_doc_19880703_duchesne_en.html.

You can read Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne's story through JSTOR:

Blessed Philippine Duchesne: Pioneer Missionary of the New World