February Saint of the Month

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, R.S.C.J. Missionary to Native Americans
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne was a passionate young woman with a heart for missionary work. She joined the Visitation nuns at the age of 19, but a few years later, convents were shut down during the French Revolution, and Rose was forced to return to life as a lay woman for many years. Ten years later, she was finally able to rejoin a convent, this time as a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1818, she was sent to the Louisiana Territory as a missionary, facing illness, hardship and hunger to bring Catholicism to the Native Americans. She opened the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi river, as well as the first Catholic school for Native Americans. She was known among the Pottawatomie Indians as the "Woman Who Prays Always.
To find out more about St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne follow this link: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19880703_duchesne_en.html