To her sister Euphrosine, Madame Jean-Joseph Jouve

Philippine Duchesne Aboard the 'Rebecca' - undated, oil on panel, 13" x 28",
portrait by Margaret Mary Nealis, R.S.C.J.
location Sacred Heart School in Halifax

December 14, 1817 ~  Mother Duchesne writes to her sister Euphrosine, "I am most grateful to you for your gift and for the good wishes you express for my happiness.  I shall find it always in the accomplishment of God's Will for me, so a change of residence will make no difference.  When I came to Paris I neither expected nor desired to remain here.  I love far more the simplicity of small towns.  Wherever, I may be, I shall always find a way to give you news of myself and to recieve news from you. As yet nothing has been decided. . . Fiat in all!"

Taken from the book:  "Through the Year with Philippine Duchesne"

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat born on this day in 1779

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
(1779-1865)
(The above portrait hangs in the Sacred Heart School of Montreal)

Madeleine Louise Sophie Barat was born two months premature and on a night that her parents would soon not forget. On December 12, 1779 a fire broke out in Joigny, France.  It is said that the stress and terror that her mother Madame Madeleine Fouffe Barat experienced brought her third child into this world earlier than expected and she was considered to be very fragile.  Baby Madeleine's parents took her very early the next morning to be baptized in St. Thibault Church.  A local woman by the name of Louise-Sophie Cedor was also heading to the 5 am mass and so she and baby Madeleine’s brother Louis Barat were chosen to stand in as her godparents.

"Sophie had once overheard someone telling the story of the fire on the night of her birth, and the grown-ups would ask: "What brought you into the world, Sophie?" for the pleasure of hearing her grave reply: "It was fire." This answer became a family legend, and grew into a symbol of the destiny of this "child of fire". But at the time none of them could have given it its true significance, the fiery devotion to the Divine Heart to which Sophie's life was to be given.  This devotion had not yet penetrated into Joigny."

Taken from the book: St. Madeleine Sophie - Her Life and Letters by Margaret Williams, R.S.C.J.

Notes written by Mother Amelie Jouve, R.S.C.J.

Academy of the Sacred Heart ~ St. Charles, MO

September 19, 1853 ~  Notes written by Mother Amelie Jouve, R.S.C.J.,* "The convent of St. Charles is very pleasantly situated on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River.  The unpretentious little brick building has been enlarged on one side by a cloister chapel. Adjoining this is the small room in which Mother Duchesne spent most of her time during the last ten years of her life, now praying, now working.  The furniture of her room consisted of a low cot, a chair, a wooden box in which she kept her treasures: some instruments of penance, some spiritual notebooks, some letters of Our Mother General."  

Taken from the book: Through the Year with Philippine Duchesne

* Mother Amelie Jouve, R.S.C.J. was Philippine's niece

To Mother Lalanne, R.S.C.J.

View from the upstairs window of the
Old South Wing Convent
St. Ferdinand in Florissant, MO

September 5, 1822 ~ Mother Duchesne writes to Mother Lalanne, "We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self."

Taken from the book: Through the Year with Philippine Duchesne


For further information on becoming a friend and member of Old St. Ferdinand Shrine - click here.