Overview

Philippine Duchesne has a message for today's world in which the rich seem to be growing richer and the poor to be growing poorer. It is a message of justice and love for all people. It was for this conviction that Philippine, a Religious of the Sacred Heart missionary, became the fourth United States saint in 1988. This book is a bold historical biography of a remarkable woman who struggled her entire life to enflesh God's love and care in human situations. It opens with a critical discussion and forthright examination of how class, gender, and race have been influential factors in the selection of saints, and then details Philippine's life with its many failures and many achievements. It shows how this wealthy woman who belonged to a politically prominent French family decided to dedicate her life and gifts to the poor. It examines her difficulties as Sacred Heart's first missionary in the new world and it tells how this courageous pioneer woman provided free education for those who had long been denied the privilege--young women, the poor, and native Americans. This eminently readable biography provides a clear and scholarly assessment of Duchesne's religious and social world that is ideal for students and professors of U.S. church history. It raises important questions about women, the poor, and marginalized groups in Duchesne's time that are still pertinent to ask today.

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9781556353789

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Catherine M. Mooney received her master of theological studies from Harvard Divinity School and her PhD in history from Yale University. Her research and teaching interests include the history of spirituality, religious life, saints and canonization, and women's history. She has lived in Argentina and South Africa, where she taught and was a human rights advocate. Her publications include Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters (1999); articles on saints such as Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi, and Angela of Foligno; and a translation of Guatemalan Mayan women's oral histories, Voices and Images: Mayan Ixil Women of Chajul (2000). She teaches graduate courses in Christian history and spirituality at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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