From the Friars: A Remarkable Rose

In 1671 St. Rose of Lima became the first canonized saint of the new world. Almost 100 years later a baby girl was born in Grenoble, France and was named after her. From a young age Rose Philippine Duchesne longed to be a nun and a missionary. She entered the convent at 19 against the wishes of her family. She eventually joined the Society of the Sacred Heart and was sent to the United States in 1818. She founded schools in Missouri and Louisiana. After many years, St. Rose realized her dream of evangelizing native Americans when she was sent with a group of sisters to found a school for Potawatomi girls in Sugar Creek, Kansas in 1841. The natives called her “the woman who prays always.”

As has been happening frequently in recent years, St. Rose Philippine has been disparaged, or “cancelled,” because she and her community owned slaves. A College founded by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in England changed the name of its Duchesne Building to the Nelson Mandela Building. There is no justifying slavery and it is disappointing that a woman of such heroic charity participated in this evil. But it is important to understand people in their historical context. We know that St. Rose found slavery repugnant and no doubt sought to treat slaves justly despite not yet seeing the unacceptable injustice of the institution itself.

So many self-appointed judges of the morality of historical figures should cause us to examine our own cooperation and participation in present evils. Slavery is more prevalent now than ever. Some estimate that there are up to 50 million people living in some type of slavery today with over 70% being women and girls. The clothes we wear, our coffee and the sugar in it, are they bought at the price of the misery of the poor and defenseless? Am I contributing to the plagues of abortion and pornography that destroy so many lives? Maybe we have some logs in our own eyes that need to be removed before we judge others.

St. Rose said “I may not be a martyr for the Faith, but I can be a martyr of charity.”

May it be so for us all.
–Fr. Peter