Anna du Rousier, RSCJ (1806-1880)

The following material is an essay from the book Southward Ho! The Society of the Sacred Heart Enters “Lands of the Spanish Sea.”

By Helen Rosenthal, RSCJ

One of the great missionaries of the Society of the Sacred Heart who was influenced by Saint Philippine Duchesne was Anna du Rousier. Destined to carry the Society to a new continent and to spread the devotion to the Heart of Jesus, she had received thefire from Philippine and with it enkindled the hearts of many. Her life and work prepared her to be the one to carry the fire of God's love to distant lands.[1]

Anna du Rousier was born in Poitou December 20, 1806 of noble parents, Chevalier Barthélémy du Rousier and AnneThorin de la Ponge. She was only seven and playing in the courtyard of her home with her younger sisters and brother when she saw her father carried in. He had been attacked and then dragged mercilessly with his feet tied with a rope attached to the tail ofhis horse. Anna looked at her mur­ dered father and felt called to give herself to God. She confided later that it was then "she came to realize for the first time something of the wicked­ ness of men and the greatness, the justice, and the goodness of God ... who abides forever and whom no one can take away from those who love him.”

Shortly after this, the Vicar General of Poitiers, Abbé Sayer, asked the Religious of the Sacred Heart to receive Anna and one of her sisters in the boarding school in Poitiers. The two youngest girls were placed at the Christian Union School.This was through the intercession of the retired Bishop of Gap, Mgr. Francois de la Brau de Vareilles, whose carriage wentevery Thursday to pick up all four of the du Rousier girls and some of their friends. He enjoyed having them spend the school holiday at his home.

When Anna was twelve, Philippine Duchesne stopped at Poitiers on her way to America and spoke to the childrenin the boarding school. Anna was deeply impressed and felt then the call to be a missionary. This call was to echo within her all of her life. She became a leader among the girls. One of her companions recalled that Anna had a poor memory but promised St. Aloysius to learn his life by heart, if he would grant her the power to remember her lessons. She kept herpromise, and the Saint heard her prayer. Anna became known for her accurate recall of figures, facts, and texts.

When she was fourteen, Anna was sent home to recover from an

illness. While she was there, her mother learned of her vocation and told her daughter that if she became a religious, she would never see her again. This turned out to be true, but Anna did not waver. She asked to enter the convent when she returned to school, but she was only fifteen and Henriette Grosier, the superior, made her wait. Anna remained in school and continued to grow in virtue while being given such tasks as making thirty-two curtains for the dormitory. Anna accepted the project andenlisted the other boarders to help her. They loved her and willingly set to work.

At the end of the boarding school retreat the next year, the retired Bishop who had befriended the du Rousier girls all these years came for Benediction. His sermon ended with this request: "If anyone of you, my children, has heard the call ofGod in this retreat, let her come forward and receive the habit!' Anna came forward and the Bishop said to her: "You shall be like the leaf which is carried away by the wind, like the seed cast into the earth in distant lands that it may bring forth itsfruit. Abandon yourself to the wind of grace." Anna later said that at that moment she had an intuition that was prophetic ofher future.

After this unusual "taking of the habit," allowed by Mother Barat to please the Bishop, Anna was sent to the general novitiate in Paris. She lost herself in the hidden life, but within fifteen months her missionary vocation began; she was sent to Piedmont in northwest Italy. King Charles Felix had invited the Society of the Sacred Heart to Turin, the capital of hiskingdom of Sardinia, to educate the daughters of the nobility.

Josephine Bigeu, an assistant general, was sent in 1823 to establish a convent there and was now returning in January of 1825 tobegin the school. Anna was her companion on the difficult trip through the Alps.

The vast convent in Turin, called the Crucifix, was a gift to the Society of the Sacred Heart. Since it was unfurnishedand needed every­ thing, the community lived in extreme poverty. Anna developed the habit of self-forgetfulness thatcharacterized her for the rest of her missionary life. At one point she did seek consolation from her confessor, who toldher: "One would be a fool to want anything but the will of God:' Mother du Rousier laughingly told this story later in her life and added that she had forgotten many exhortations but never that one.

Anna made her first vows on November 13, 1825. Mother Bigeu wrote to her from Rome shortly afterwards saying,"So, my dear child, without rejecting the desire you feel for Louisiana, do not hold to it too much. Give to your God what he asks of you at every moment of your life. That will be a very good preparation for whatever he may ask of you in the future:' Anna took this advice to heart and was devoted to her work in the school. The Mistress General, Maria Panquer, was quite ill and Anna was acting as head of the school long before her final profession, June 10, 1831.

As Mistress General, Anna du Rousier quickly exerted her influence over the children in the school and through themover the whole of Turin. She overcame her natural timidity and won over the pupils who soon reflected the excellent formation they received. She was gentle but firm. She once said: "Don't try to do two things at the same time. Otherwise youwill finish neither and have to begin all over again:' This was how Anna succeeded in creating an atmosphere of peace wherevershe labored. Through her pupils, a Christian influence was felt in Turin society. The Viscount of Mélen attributed to the Society the solid education, the distinction of manner, and the high moral quality of the women who had been educated at the convent of the Sacred Heart in Turin. There are biographies written about some forty of the former students of thistime.

It was necessary to be always on the alert for Queen Marie Christine's visits. A special bell was rung to warn the school. Valerie de Rebuto de Saxel, a little Savoyard pupil, gives us an account of a visit: "The nun in charge would say, 'Youngladies, take out your pantalets!' At once, and in perfect order, the girls would open their desks and remove two articles ofwearing apparel, which they irreverently called our 'leg-end: Quickly, they drew them on over their legs and buttoned them above the knee. They were much longer than their skirts and surrounded each little calf with a flounce of immaculate embroidery. Then they drew three locks of hair down against each cheek and curled them around their fingers. In a few minutes they were standing in a straight line, ready to curtsy, and almost immediately the Queen would enter.” The administration ofmany projects to help the poor called forth Mother du Rousier's gifts. Some of the works that she directed were: the training oforphan girls for housework; the education of teachers for village schools at Pignerol; the formation of the students in special crafts in the free school; the sodality group for women of the lower classes called the Consolers of Mary; the Association of the Sacred Heart, formed to centralize the social works of Turin; the establishment of free libraries; the instruction of children fromthe parishes; and the teaching of deaf-mutes at Chambery. Through the Children of Mary sodality she was able to continue her reform of the society of Turin and gain volunteers and financial aid for her many social projects undertaken to improve the conditions of the working class.

The boarding schools and free schools expanded rapidly as Anna du Rousier was soon charged with other foundations. She was active in opening convents in Parma and Padua. Named superior in 1838, she held this position for ten years. In1842 there was a request from the emperor of Burma for a group of Religious of the Sacred Heart. She wrote to Mother Barat: "How happy I should be if you would send me there. You did not accept me for America or for Africa (a convent hadrecently been founded in Algeria); please do let me go to Asia. I do not deserve this favor, but Jesus will help me.” MotherBarat replied: "This foundation attracts you because you would like to convert the whole universe to the Sacred Heart:' However, it was not to be and Anna continued to be formed for greater things by Mother Barat who told her: "A superiorwill do good in proportion to her prayer... Though one cannot pray all day long, one should have the desire, the tendency ofthe soul towards God which almost always draws down the light and strength to act in the name of Jesus. One should have the habit of recollection...then there is never any waste of time...such a superior is an instrument which receives and which faithfully transmits to others what she has received, as a canal brings water from the spring.”

In 1845 Mother du Rousier accepted another burden. She was asked to take on the administration of another school in Turin, one founded in the sixteenth century for the education of middle-class girls. It was a difficult task as the students had been allowed too much freedom. Since this school added to her work,Mother Barat again wrote to her: "No doubt you very much need the spirit of prayer to enable you to bear your heavy burden. Itwould be impossible if the amount of work you have to do prevented you from giving the usual hours to prayer... Accustom yourself to empty your faculties to the memory of things and of persons while you are at prayer,” She told her that as soon as she settled an affair, she should leave its success to Our Lord and not go back over what may have been a success or praisereceived. Mother Barat added: "Self-love is so subtle! Let us put aside all such thoughts and go back to Our Lord as a fish, iftaken out of water, jumps back into it as soon as he can. Because, dear Anna, unless you have great love and fidelity, your faculties and your senses will fritter away their strength among the exterior things in times of aridity. Foresee this possibilityand form the habit of rejecting all that is useless.” Anna took to heart these words of direction.

Anna du Rousier was able to combine the active and the contemplative life, but sometimes it was a struggle for her. She wrote to Mother Barat that the action of God on her soul was "so strong, the attraction which draws me to Jesus is so powerful, that I find myself entirely concentrated upon him with scarcely any cooperation on my part. Through fear of illusion, Isometimes withdraw myself from the power of this attraction, and I dare not give myself up completely to the intense feelingof love which I experience.” Her retreat notes show how near Jesus seemed and how he granted her special help. Her resolutionsmade in retreat were concerned with continual mortification.

Although Mother du Rousier was named superior vicar of Piedmont only in 1842, she had long been carrying theresponsibility of new foundations: Gratz in Austria, Lemberg in Poland, and Salucca in Italy. She was also acting as mistress ofnovices for the thirty-three novices who moved to Turin from Pignerol after the death of Mother Clara Quirin. Stanislas Tommasini, having taken the habit in 1845, was one of Mother du Rousier's novices. She later recalled that the novices recognized that Mother du Rousier was a person "penetrated by the truth that God is all and everything else is nothing.” Anna told her novices: "We do not understand the love of God for us because we do not reflect enough upon it, because we are lacking in confidence, and above all because we want to remain self-imprisoned in the wretched circle of our difficultiesinstead of establishing our souls in the love of Jesus by mortification and recollection.”

         By 1847 calumnies were being spread about the Society, especially about Mother du Rousier, by those who were planning a revolution in Piedmont. Their grievance was "the good done by the religious among every class of people for the past twenty years through their work of education." As Mother du Rousier was the soul of this work, they determined to get rid ofher. One rumor had Anna declaring the Pope a heretic. Although Mother Barat advised defending herself, the Vicar ofPiedmont thought that she should remain silent. He told her that he knew her too well to believe such nonsense. Unfortunately, just at this time Mother Barat needed Anna to visit Poland; she went saying only: "I am entirely at your disposal, though my incompetence is greater than you think, because my self-love hides it. I am entirely yours and rightly so! From the age of eight years you have taken care of me. Thank God I have no attachment, no desire, except for the missions, America or the Empire of Burma or wherever you wish to send me.”

To leave Turin at this time of rumor was thought to be folly as others would think she had been banished. Motherdu Rousier said: "It does not matter. I am going through obedience and no consideration will stop me.” She went to Poland, then an eight-day journey by coach over mountains, but soon had to return as the unrest in Turin signaled trouble. The newly created Parliament's first act was to expel all religious orders from Piedmont. The Jesuits had their doors forced open atmidnight.

Posters throughout the city proclaimed: "Tomorrow the Sacred Heart." When Count Gazelli learned that Mother duRousier was determined to stay, he exclaimed: "But, Madame, you will be a martyr!" She replied: "I am not worthy of such a grace, my Lord.”

Mother du Rousier sent the children home and the young nuns to Parma or Padua or to relatives, but she decided tostay. The expulsion of the nuns from Soccorso, Parma, and Genoa quickly followed and she suffered from the closing of the nine houses that she had founded or governed during twenty years. She wrote to Mother Barat asking to be removed from hercharge for the good of the Society. She also told her: "I am manifesting to you very sincerely my dispositions to go anywhere you wish to send me, and to be employed in any work you may choose.”

Soon the law forbade the presence of the nuns in Piedmont and Mother Barat welcomed them at the Rue de Varenne in Paris. Anna du Rousier was kept there, and she hid herself in quiet service, helping wherever needed until the childrenreturned in 1848. Then Mother Barat put her in charge of the school at the Hotel Biron, some months after the death of Eugenie de Gramont who had held that post since 1816. It was difficult at first for she was not accepted, but soon she won the respect of all and the affection of many. Joseph Barelle, SJ, her spiritual director, encouraged her to suffer in humility. In a letter to Louise de Limminghe she revealed that she considered it her good fortune to be despised, forgotten, to lack support, to be contradicted and censured. She added: "A double attraction draws me towards Jesus in the Eucharist and Jesus in Mary. I rarely leave this horizon. Our Lord is more than good to his unworthy creature, who often feels vividly theimpression of his presence.” After stating that she lived content and abandoned into the hands of the Lord and that shehad the desire to draw all hearts to him, she mentioned her old desire for some poor and distant mission. Her desire for the missions was a constant in her life from her childhood encounter with Philippine Duchesne, on her way to America in 1818.

A general council for the Society of the Sacred Heart was held in Lyon in 1851. Anna du Rousier should have gone tothis, but remained in Paris because of political unrest in the city and a sick child in the boarding school. In her absence, the members of the council chose her to go as visitator to the houses of the Society in North America. Although Anna had longed for years to follow Philippine Duchesne to America, she now was to go with authority to visit and inspect fifteen different establishments spread out over half the vast continent. This was daunting enough, but she did not know English, and this added to her difficult task. Mother Barat had confidence in Anna; she knew her loyalty and her good judgment. Ascompanion, she sent Antonietta Pissorno, a co-adjutrix sister who also had been in Piedmont.[2]

In May 1852, Anna du Rousier set sail with six other religious, including Stanislas Tommasini, and Julia, a protégé ofMother Barat. All except Julia were seasick most of the trip as it was one of the roughest crossings ever experienced. When they arrived, they were welcomed by the superiors of the three North American areas: Aloysia Hardey of the East, Maria Cuttsof the Mississippi Valley, and Theresita Trincano of Canada.

Mother du Rousier traveled thousands of miles helping to reorganize the American houses after a terrible epidemic ofcholera had taken the lives of many as it spread throughout the country. Arriving in St. Louis on November 17, 1852, sheasked to be taken to St. Charles in spite of a storm that seems to have been a combination of rain, sleet, and snow.Philippine Duchesne was dying, but she was able to receive the blessing Mother Barat sent with Anna du Rousier, who then begged for Philippine's blessing. Philippine died peacefully at noon the next day. Her last blessing conveyed her spirit toMother du Rousier, who later said: "I still seem to feel the cross that she traced on my forehead! I trust to that cross tobring me happiness and I shall try to live it more and more.”

Mother du Rousier spent the next months in Louisiana visiting the houses there. Then she traveled up the Mississippiwith the three she had named for the foundation in St. Joseph, Missouri. She herself continued on to Buffalo where a letter from Mother Barat awaited her. In it was a request for Anna to go with a few companions to Chile to see about establishing a school there. If she did not feel up to this long journey, Mother Barat sug­ gested that Aloysia Hardey might replace her.

Mother du Rousier took the letter to prayer. The entire night passed in a struggle to accept this new call. She later confided to Louise de Limminghe that this was the greatest struggle of her interior life. She com­ pared it to the agony of Jesus, saying: "I really believe that I felt something of what Jesus felt in the Garden of Olives: heart, mind, imagination, all in upheaval, as it were, at the thought of the long journey, the isolation, the abandonment, the difficulties in the midst of whichI would find myself, and a thousand other fears that frightened me so much that, in spite of my prayers, I felt my courage failing. However, after repeated acts of acceptance of all and abandonment of all, after repeating in my heart, in spite of the storm raging within, the 'Ita Pater,’ the storm calmed, and a deep sense of abandonment and loving peace filled my soul.”

After that night of fear, Mother du Rousier showed only courage as she hastened to prepare for the voyage. She chose Mary McNally and Antonietta Pissorno to go with her. The trio represented three nationalities: Anglo-American, Italian, and French. Father Jaoquin Larrain, his younger brother, Don Ladislao, and his nephew, Don Manuel Yrarrazábal, Marquis de la Pica, accompanied the three nuns who left New York in August 1853. After a stop in Jamaica, they continued by boat to the Isthmus of Panama.

At Barbacoa, they stopped for the night. Although they paid for their dinner, they saw it disappear before it reached them. This happened whenever they stopped at an inn as food was scarce and was grabbed before it could be served to thenuns. After a seven-hour journey by canoe, they arrived at Cruz and were able to get a room. This inn was full of evil-looking men and again the food was seized in spite of the efforts of the gentlemen traveling with the nuns. After a night ofwatchfulness, they awoke early to find the courtyard full of mules, which Antonietta Pissorno thought were camels whenshe first saw them. They donned the more suitable clothes they had brought for traveling across the Isthmus. The "riding-habit" that the great heat and circumstances made necessary consisted of "two very light skirts, one black and one white," over which they wore rain-coats. On their heads were round hats to complete their costumes; these were bought the day before at Aspinwall. Then they set off mounted on mules for the dangerous crossing of the mountains.

The journey followed a rocky path in which deep ruts had been dug out by rain; soon the path narrowed and topass the rocks on either side without getting crushed they had to sit cross-legged on their saddles. Any attempt to guide the mule was useless. Mary McNally, whose account gives many details of this difficult voyage, wrote: "The only thing we could do was to try to stay firmly in the saddle and not give way to fright when the mule jumped or shook himself or followed his caprices in other ways. Sometimes the mule would stop as though to calculate distance, then with one bound, he would leap over a rock six or seven feet high.” She continues with a vivid account of this perilous journey as they made their way across the Isthmus.

One of the dangers of the crossing was the number of caravans coming from the opposite direction. It seems that steamboats coming to Panama from the Gulf of Mexico arrived at the eastern port about the same time boats from the Pacific arrived at the western port. When the two boatloads of passengers met in a narrow passage, one group would need to turn back to avoid being crushed on the rocks by the oncoming mules and their baggage. To try to avoid this peril, as soon as they entered a narrow passage the drivers began to shout to warn others of their approach.

McNally describes how they had already gone "far into one of these wind­ ing passes, so narrow and so deep that the sky wasonly a thin strip above us with high walls of rock on both sides. As we approached a turn, we heard the cry of a muleteerfrom around the bend, warning us of an oncoming caravan. Don Ladislas, who was leading our group, turned and cried out, 'What shall we do?' No one had time to answer him. There appeared before us a mule laden with enormous crates, soon followed by twenty more, all coming towards us with as much speed as their burdens permitted:' The guides tried to stop themto no avail and each of the nuns had to jump down from her mount and climb the rocky wall on one side of the road, butdu Rousier had not been able to dismount in time and was knocked down. She fell into a crevice filled with red earth, which softened her fall. Two rocky elevations beside the crevice protected her, but the stirrups, the girth and the saddle of the mule she had been riding were torn badly. After the equipment was mended, she remounted and the journey continued.

By noon, a terrible storm broke. The deluge caused the roads to turn to mud into which the mules sank up to their knees and sometimes deeper. The nuns were "wet to the skin and covered with mud up to our waists:' Finally the storm abated and the path was bordered on one side by an immense swamp and on the other by a horrible precipice. Again, McNally's description isworth quoting: "As we had been advised to let our mules choose their own way, most of them, instinctively, carried us into the mud. Suddenly Colonel Izarnotigué uttered a loud cry. We turned around and saw that Mother du Rousier had disappeared!Father Larrain, his eyes and hands raised to heaven, was in a state of consternation. The mule she had been riding was lying on the edge of the precipice and the drivers, leaning over the abyss, were crying out, ‘The lady has fallen!' What a frightful moment!" The mule had thrown Anna du Rousier over the edge, but a large tree-trunk stopped her fall and she managed to clingto it until help arrived. None of the drivers would risk their lives to go after her until finally Manuel, the servant of Canon Herrero, forced another Negro to go down with him. By means of ropes, they were able to climb back up carrying her. It was amazing that, although covered with bruises, she had not broken any bones. Father Larrain could only repeat: "How God loves them!"

When Anna du Rousier was again mounted, the beast plunged into a muddy swamp and she was drenched in mud up to her waist. The weight of the mud actually necessitated cutting off her skirt. Father Larrain then switched mules with her and they pushed on in the hope of making Panama City by nightfall.They came to a hut and tried to get a hammock to carry her, but the bearers refused to go on, so another night was passed in dangerous, uncomfortable surroundings. They had been on mule-back for thirteen hours!

Father Larrain, who had been with Mother du Rousier during their weeks of travel, declared that he had "sought invain for any imperfection in her, and could not find even one feminine weakness.” He added: "We must thank God for having chosen her as the foundress for Chile not only because of her competence but also because she is the true type of a Religious of the Sacred Heart.”

The trip from Panama to Chile was made by boat. They arrived in Valparaiso, the nearest port to Santiago, onSeptember 12, 1853. On the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, September l4, they arrive in Santiago, the capital ofChile. The Archbishop of Santiago, Monsignor Rafael Valentin Valdivieso y Zanartu, was surprised to see them so soon and had no lodging prepared for them. They were taken to Father Larrain's mother who welcomed them warmly. They stayed with her for six weeks. By then, Mother du Rousier felt that it still might be some time before they found a house and soasked the Archbishop to find a convent that would give them hospitality. The Archbishop thought of the Carmelites, but their cloister did not permit them to receive the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Instead, they went to the convent of theClarisas de la Victoria. These Sisters were happy to have them there for the next three months.

While they were still looking for a house, Silvestre Ochagvadía, the Minister of Public Education, representing the President of Chile, came to beg Reverend Mother du Rousier to open a Normal School to train teachers for Chile. Without personnel or financial resources, and without yet having begun the boarding school that was the reason for her coming to Chile, Mother du Rousier gave a courageous assent to President Manuel Montt's proposal. In a manuscript found in thearchives of the Sacred Heart Province in Chile, we have Mother du Rousier's introduction and then a copy of letters andother documents pertinent to the first Normal School in Chile. It is interesting to note that she declared the Normal Schoolto be the most fundamental help for the establishment of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Chile. The reason was economic. The Archbishop "did not fulfill his promises" nor did they receive any help during the first months from the Societyof the Sacred Heart. They were really without funds to begin either school, but the government gave help for the  teacher-training school. Mother du Rousier wrote that "the President and the authorities are well-disposed towards us. If thisshould change, ... we are always in the situation of being able to renounce the direction of the Normal school as we are notbound by any contract.” She added that the numerous boarding pupils have no communication with the students of the Normal School.

The following conditions proposed to the Minister of Public Education in November 1853 with respect to the Propositionsmade by the government for the Normal School were carefully copied by Mother du Rousier, as follows:

1. In accepting the direction of the Normal School, the Religious of the Sacred Heart ask to be free as to the form of educationand independent with regard to the discipline within the school.
2. The age for the admission of the students will be between 12 and 14 years old. The good conduct and the moral behaviorof the youth to be admitted, must be recognized and offer sufficient guarantees.
3. For reasons of conduct, bad character, poor health, or proven inaptitude, the Religious will be able to obtain the dismissaland the replacement of a pupil.
4. The tuition for each student will be fixed at $100 for the year and

$40 for the cost of maintenance, laundry, etc.

Mother du Rousier noted that these conditions were accepted without difficulties.

The government officials now aided the nuns in their search for a house. Finally, they accepted a seven-year contract on an unfinished house. On the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, February 2, 1854, the foundresses moved intothis semi-ruined building without doors or windows on the garden side, but they moved in bravely. The house had no water supply and a disgusting ditch which ran in front of the outhouses was liable to overflow periodically. One night a man wrapped in a cloak startled them and was, no doubt, startled by them, for he turned and fled. Their poverty was real and they often lacked food. Mother McNally wrote about the fleas that "wait for us with a devouring eagerness, and in such great numbersthat they wage a furious war against us.” The fact that the nuns would move there before the house was finished and repaired seems to have impressed many of the clergy and the wealthy of Santiago. They were used to having religious of contemplativeorders installed in large convents with beautiful gardens.

Father Larrain came to offer Mass for them the next day, the First Friday dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Many members ofFather Larrain's family attended the Liturgy and all had a banquet afterwards. A loyal black woman, Luz Gonzalez, who was a convert of Father Larrain, was also there.[3] It was two weeks before the nuns had a regular chaplain to say Mass for the community. In April Father José Salvo, an old priest living in the neighborhood, gave them a modest tabernacle and the Archbishop came himself to install the Blessed Sacrament.

Five weeks after moving into this house, called Saint Isidore, Mother du Rousier was asked to receive FatherLarrain's two little nieces. Their mother, Dona Rita Etcheverria(sic), was dying of tuberculosis. Although the house wasfar from being ready, the boarding school began on the Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, with Teresa and PrimitivaEcheverria. The Archbishop then sent several of his nieces and cousins. With these children needing and demandingattention, the nuns somehow managed to open the Normal School with forty students on May 1, 1854. The threeRSCJ worked miracles to keep all running smoothly. The classes were taught in Spanish as they had started their studyof the language with Father Larrain on the journey to Chile and had used the months waiting to find a house tocontinue trying to master the language.

Since the two schools had to be kept entirely separate, the three nuns had a double amount of labor and it seems a miracle that their time and strength was multiplied. Mother du Rousier, besides being superior, taught French to the boarderswho were under the watchful eyes of Mary McNally both day and night. Anna du Rousier also taught classes in doc­ trine, geography, history and arithmetic in Spanish to the students training to be teachers. Sister Antonietta helped supervise these students who were, for the most part, country girls who needed to be trained in the most elementary habits of urban life. Cleanliness and order were unknown to them so that they brought with them to the school disgusting vermin which caused the only exclamation of horror anyone ever heard from Mother du Rousier. Sister Antonietta "with one eye, watched over her forty student trainees, while she kept the other eye on the work of her open-air kitchen, on the chickens boiling in the pot,the enormous ants trying to eat the starch on the nuns caps and other linen she was trying to launder.” When evening came and the pupils of both schools were finally asleep, the three could meet to plan the work of the next day, pray, and relax together.

The Governor of Santiago soon came to visit the students in the Normal School and was astonished at the progressthey had made in such a short time. Anna du Rousier left notes where she tells us: "I myself drew up the Plan of Studies, which I also sent to Paris. It includes reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, some ideas of history and geography, pencil drawing and sewing. The Minister approved it.” The original forty students soon increased to fifty. The nuns were even responsible to clothe these teen-agers.

Letters were slow to arrive. After a year of more than superhuman effort with the three nuns trying to fulfill all the positions and employments, word came from the Motherhouse in France that six more religious of the Sacred Heart, representing four nationalities, were on their way.[4] It took them three months to reach Santiago. After experiencing a harrowing and difficult journey, they were given a royal welcome. As they entered the city, having been met previously by a French priest bearing a message of welcome from Mother du Rousier, there were ceremonies of rejoicing, speeches given by high officials, and the chanting of the Te Deum. When the nuns showed surprise at the celebration in their honor, they were told: "When your first companions arrived, we did not realize what treasures we had the happiness of receiving, but now we want to express by these festivities our joy at having with us another colony of the Society of the Sacred Heart establishedamong us and show our appreciation.” These and more details of the arrival are to be found in the Chilean Province archives.

Eugenie du Lac, who had been with Anna du Rousier in Turin, led this new group. With the six religious came a letter from Mother Barat which began by telling Anna, "the further you are from us the closer and stronger is our union in Jesus. What proof of attachment to the Society you have given by consenting to your exilein Chile!" She then speaks of the great needs of North America and asks her to return there, unless she was "indispensable" to the foundation in Chile. Anna du Rousier never considered herself indispensable and was ready to return to North America, butbefore she could do so, she became seriously ill. After a month she began to get better and wrote to Mother Barat saying: "Ithought my mission was ended and, by the grace of God, I felt indifferent between life and death. However, Our Lord, seeing my hands empty, has given me time to expiate.”

Her hands were really full with an increase of pupils in both the boarding school and the normal school. Mother Baratwrote asking her to begin a novitiate in Santiago and then go to Guatemala! This would mean another journey by mule acrossthe Isthmus of Panama and then through the mountains in Guatemala besides the voyages to be arranged by ship. She was ready to obey, but before she could set out, another letter from Mother Barat arrived in which she said: "Oh! My daughter, youmust on no account go to Guatemala! I was making a big mistake:' Fortunately, the Jesuit Provincial in Chile wrote to France tohave the Jesuit Provincial there tell Mother Barat that it would be easier to go from France or England to reach Guatamala(sic) than from Chile. (A foundation was never made in Guatemala.)

Anna du Rousier remained calm and serene. In fact, she exemplified what the Rule of Simplicity says about "the calm of a soul who seeks and longs for nothing but her God.” She wrote to Louise de Limminghe: "As to my present dispositions,I can sum them up in two words: profound peace and immense gratitude to Jesus for continuing to do his work in my soul in spite of my cowardice and resistance; in short, complete abandonment to him of everything.”

The novitiate was soon established in Santiago. Because they were so cramped for space, the novices had to sleep, work, study and recreate in the same room. Several novices died young and this was a source of great concern as these conditions were not healthy. In spite of circumstances, Mother du Rousier was able to transmit the true spirit of theSociety of the Sacred Heart to those who entered. One of those who had come from France, Mathilde Rock, wrote backto France to say "everything here is done in peace for we feel the presence of Our Lord in every word and decision.” This was Mother du Rousier's gift and the foundation in Chile was marked by her union with the Lord and the peace she radiated to those around her. Another newly arrived religious wrote to Mother Barat about the St. Isidore community:"The charity, the calmness, the recollection which reign in this holy house have made such a deep impression on me thatI feel I cannot thank Our Lord enough for having called me to this dear Society where there is such union and conformity, even in this distant land, that one would think oneself at the mother house. Your principles, your desires are so living herethat it seems to me I am still near you although a vast ocean separates us.”

Before she could move her nuns from St. Isidore to a new location in Santiago, Mother du Rousier was occupied with another foundation, Talca, a city one hundred and fifty miles south of Santiago and difficult to reach in 1858. Her correspondence with the priest, Justo Pastor Tapia, began in 1857 and tells the story of adonation he is making to the Society of the Sacred Heart in order to have a school for girls in Talca. She discovered that he hadbeen a Dominican before becoming a secular priest. She did not want to have any legal difficulties and so asked approval from Rome and urged that this be taken care of quickly as the priest was old and frail. She sent the first letter to the secretary general of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Adele Cahier, but she also wrote to Mother Barat. It was really the Archbishop whowanted her to send the petition to Rome in order to make sure that the Dominican Order would not try to claim the schoollater. In her letter to Mother Barat, du Rousier also complains about the slowness of building in Santiago and the fact that she will not be able to move her community for two years. However, she ends her letter by saying: "But everywhere, the work ofGod grows here in the midst of thorns and we need great confidence in God and much energy. Ask for these two things foryour poor daughters across the sea, my Venerable Mother; bless us and receive the filial expression of our veneration and devotion…”

As the foundation of Talca was making progress, Anna du Rousier set out from Santiago with Carmen de Valdivieso,a cousin of the Archbishop, who would become a companion to Mother du Rousier on her travels to new foundations. Shewas an immense help to her superior because of her good judgment, her knowledge of the customs of the country, her discretion and her willingness to use her many gifts to assist others. She made her profession of final vows at the age of fifty-five, having entered late as after the death of her parents she was the executrix of a very large estate and had to distribute the inheritance to her many brothers and sisters and see to the many legacies to charitable institutions named in her father's will.

They set out in a carriage for Talca. The windows lacked window­ panes and they traveled along a dirt road amidclouds of dust as ten relay horses galloped beside them. When the four harnessed to the carriage tired, the coachman wouldrelease them and lasso four of the relays. These horses were half wild and jerked the carriage as they sped over the rough road.Mother du Rousier was usually ill from the jolting of the carriage, but never lost her serenity, her gentle patience nor herdetermination to go forward and accomplish the work she had been sent to do. If the road was difficult, the river-crossings were worse. The racing torrent, more or less deep, often entered the carriage so that the travelers had to draw up their legs and try to squat on the seat without losing their balance. For the larger rivers, temporary bridges would need to be constructed to get the carriage across. Sometimes there would be as many as seven rivers to cross.

When they finally arrived at Talca, Mother du Rousier inspected the donated buildings, the garden, and the not-yet-completed church. She consoled the parish priest and promised to send Mother du Lac and a small group of nuns. Thefoundation was made on November 22, 1858. The religious were received with such enthusiasm that they were nearly smothered with attention; the people had never seen nuns. The account of the reception shows how incredibly welcoming theChileans were: "Arriving around six in the evening at the edge of the Lircai, a river not too far from Talca, since we had tostop the carriage there, someone was sent to notify the others in Talca. In a short time we saw him return armed with an enormous duster with which he began to dust the carriage with an energy rather dangerous to our habits which we had just finished cleaning. Soon the venerable Pastor Tapia with some other clergy and important persons arrived and manifestedtheir satisfaction in expressive ways. Eighteen or twenty carriages full of ladies followed this first committee and they showered us with affection. We took the road to the city at full gallop as far as the Parish Church where military musicgreeted us. The Commander of the Plaza tried in vain to contain the crowd who jumped the barriers. It was with great difficulty that we entered the church where the Te Deum was sung.”

Shortly after the arrival of the religious in Talca, Father Tapia died. In less than two weeks, a revolution broke outand the frightened people ran, as if by instinct, to the convent for shelter. They received as many of the women andchildren as possible and lodged them with the community in a straw hut at the end of the garden. Mother du Lac hadlived through the revolution in Italy and so she established an order of day and encouraged all to pray for peace. Bulletsrained into the convent patio and even into the cooking pot in their outdoor kitchen. After ten days, the Monttists were able to take over the city. They established their headquarters in the convent and church. Many wounded were cared for by the three nuns, among them the leader of the revolution who was prepared to die a Christian death through the zeal andcompassion of Mother du Lac.

In March 1859, the boarding school opened with twenty-five pupils and a free school began with one hundred and forty pupils under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Both schools were flooded with students as soon as peace was restored. Again, three nuns were running two separate schools. Mother du Lac wrote to Mother Barat: "I have neither Assistant, Mistress General nor Treasurer:' These were the usual "offices" filled in a community to assist the superior. MotherBarat replied to this by saying, "My daughter, you must assist yourself.”[5]

The first convent of the Sacred Heart in Chile, appropriately dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, was moved toMaestranza after seven years at St. Isidore. One of the nuns who had arrived from France, Caroline Kruthofer, wrote. back about her impressions on arriving in Santiago saying: "we were much impressed by the work and the privations our nuns have had to endure in that mass of ruins they call St. Isidore. How they must have suffered and merited during their seven yearsthere! The signs of their poverty could be seen in the general dilapidation of the building and all were working beyondtheir strength.” Mother du Rousier, now vicar of Chile, had been able to find a new site and arrange for the building of a much larger convent, but her lack of funds and the frequent disappearance of the workmen delayed the construction. At lastall was completed. It was a vast building in which both the boarding school and the Normal School could find sufficient space, along with a free school and an orphanage. To prepare for the move, Mother du Rousier gave a conference on Christmas Eve and encouraged the community to go to Bethlehem with the shepherds and to learn from the Infant Jesus the spirit of abnegationand poverty. The house journal tells us that they had the consolation of having solemn office and that "near the crib we placed our deep gratitude for the years passed in this humble dwelling. We also expressed our sincere sorrow for the offenses andinfidelities that during this time we had the disgrace to commit.” Twenty children came to spend the night on this lastChristmas at St. Isidore.

On the Feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, 1860, most of the community moved into the new house. TheJesuits, who were very near, came to celebrate Mass. The large house with its thirteen patios easily accommodated the boarding school, the normal school, the free school, the novitiate, and the community.[6] The Normal School educated 400 to 500 teachers during its thirty-year existence. Mother du Rousier was praised for this work of education, but in 1885 then ChileanPresident Domingo Santa Maria turned the work over to a group of German professors contracted by the government.

Anna du Rousier returned to France in 1864 to assist at the eighth general council of the Society of the SacredHeart in Paris. It was a joy for her to see Mother Barat and old friends. It would be her last time to see Mother Barat who died the next year after governing the Society since its foundation in 1800 as its first and only Mother General. While de Rousier was still in France, the Bishop of Concepcion, Monsignor Hipolito Salas, wrote to her about a foundation in hisEpiscopal city and said: "I beg of you, don't stay in France! For the love of God, remember this distant corner of the world called Chile!"

Returning to Chile, she arranged for the foundation of a boarding school and free school in Concepción, two-hundred-and-fifty miles south of Santiago. Mary McNally was the first superior and began this new work of education withthree other religious on March 1, 1865 under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, continuing Mother du Rousier's custom of entrusting each foundation to Our Lady. By 1878, besides the boarding school and the free school, there was a Sunday school to teach over a hundred youth and workers the elements of culture as well as the catechism and Christiandoctrine. The convent at Concepcion is still flourishing in the heart of the city after more than a hundred and thirty-six years. The 1939 earthquake destroyed the buildings, but these were rebuilt and the school now is a free school fromkindergarten through high school. It is an immense building to house many students in a climate where rain is expected, as the Chileans say, "366 days a year!"

After Mother du Rousier installed the founding community in Concepción, Mary McNally begged her to return by steamboat as the trip south by carriage had been arduous and dangerous. At one point, the horses plunged down a mountain trail completely out of control. Going by boat did seem to be an easier and safer way, so Mother du Rousier and her companion,Carmen Valdivieso, agreed to go by sea. At first, all was well, but then they found the Spanish fleet blockading the port of Valparaiso. Their ship hid in a small inlet to allow the passengers to disembark and finish their journey overland. In a nearbyvillage, they were able to find an old carriage. Unfortunately, the carriage pole broke almost immediately and their Indian driver could not fix it so that it would be strong enough to pull them through the mountains, so they had to walk. ACapuchin monk, Father Jeremias, was with them and helped Mother du Rousier over the sharp rocks. They finally reached Calera just as a train was leaving for Santiago. Valdivieso was able to persuade the engineer to stop the train and let themboard. They were happy to return safely to Santiago, but it was to be a short stay for du Rousier.

The port city of Valparaiso was the next foundation to be made. Many Protestants were arriving because of increasedcommerce and there was a fear among some of the Catholics that their children would lose their knowledge and love for theirreligion without Catholic education. Mother du Rousier was there to begin the school in 1870 with a German, Elisabeth Windhof as superior. Just before leaving Valparaiso, Anna du Rousier fell through a trapdoor to the cellar below and broke her leg in two places. This caused her much suffering, but she continued with another foundation in Chillan, between Talca andConcepción, where both a teacher training school and a free school were opened in 1874 under the patronage of the Presentation of Our Lady. Later the government withdrew support for both and in 1885 the Society had to leave thispicturesque town.

In 1876, the foundation was made in Lima that had been asked for by Don Herrero and the Peruvians who had helped Anna du Rousier and her two companions cross the Isthmus of Panama twenty-three years earlier; their invitation was followed by three requests from the president of Peru in the 1870s. Laura Rew was the first superior in Peru. This country also turned to the Society of the Sacred Heart to have teachers trained and the normal school opened in 1878, remaining for fifty years the onlycenter in the country which trained women teachers.[7] These schools were entrusted to Our Lady as the earlier ones had been: the Presentation of Our Lady for the boarding school and the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the normal school.

But numbers of schools do not tell the story of all Mother du Rousier accomplished as a missionary. She also did much todevelop a spirit of prayer among the people of Chile, initiating solemn First Communion ceremonies as early as March 19, 1854, and helping make popular the Month of Mary, celebrated in Chile from November 7th to December 8th. By 1861 she had introduced enclosed retreats–24 made the first one at Maestranza and the adult Children of Mary organized a retreat for 200 poor children in 1864. To help spread devotion to the Sacred Heart shewrote a little book, Month of the Sacred Heart, which wasprinted in 1867, with. a second edition at the end of the century.

In 1880, she made a visitation of all six houses in her vicariate, but returned to Santiago with a chill and was obligedto go to bed. From her bed, she continued to work out the arrangements for the first foundation in Argentina to be made that year. Even the morning of her death she read her mail and asked her secretary to write in her name to a religious who had just lost her mother and to have a Mass said for the departed. Then she asked that the prayer of Thanksgiving composed by St. Gertrude be read, a prayer that she had specially marked as one she would like to have said at her deathbed. Then shecried out: "See how good God is! How he loves us! If we had our destinies in our own hands, could we ever have hoped for all that he has given us?" A few hours later there was a change and the chaplain gave her the last anointing. She quietly closed her eyes forever.

The death of Anna du Rousier on January 28, 1880, was mourned in Chile as a national misfortune. She had firmly established the Society of the Sacred Heart in that country.[8] From Chile, the Society spread to Peru and plans for the foundation in Argentina were already finalized in her lifetime, and then to Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia in South America. Anna du Rousier was a great soul, a real missionary, who followed St. Philippine Duchesne'sexample of forgetfulness of self. She was, indeed, another valiant woman completely given to the Heart of Jesus.

 

Sources

[1]An important source for the life of Anna du Rousier is Madeleine d'Ernemont [penname of Madeleine de Canecaude]. La Vie Voyageuse et Missionaire de la Reverende Mere du Rousier, Religieuse du Sacre-Coeur. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932. I have used the typescript Mother Anna du Rousier: Religious of the Sacred Heart, Traveler and Missionary 1806-1880, translat­ ed and edited by Agnes C. Ducey, RSCJ. NASSH. This is the source of facts and qu.otations unless otherwise specified.

In addition, I am indebted to the Chilean Province archives for most of the information on the foundations in Chile, especially to research done by Paz Riesco, RSCJ. Translations from Spanish are mine.

[2] Antonietta Pissorno desired very much to go with Mother du Rousier to America but only told her guardian angel of her desire in prayer. Three days before Mother du Rousier was to leave, Antonietta met Mother Barat in the corridor who said to her: "Well, dear daughter, do you want to gowith your Mother to America?" Antonietta did not hesitate and said later that her guardian angel had listened to her prayer. Antonietta would alsoaccompany Mother du Rousier on her journey to Chile and be an important member of the first foundation there until her death in 1873. Thisinformation is taken from the Chilean archives and was published in Busqueda l997, in an article on the foundresses of the Province of Chile.

[3] Luz Gonzalez was to be an untiring helper and friend to the nuns; she lived to glorify the Heart of Jesus in all that she did and died ten years later in a terrible fire in the Jesuit church on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

[4]The six were Eugenie du Lac (who took the name Therese when she was pro­ fessed in Chile in 1859), Italian; Maria Lenoir, French; Elisa Sieburgh, Dutch; and Josephine Echeveria, Isabelle Plandiura, and Magina Pujol, all Spanish.

[5]Talca flourished until 1929 when it was closed after an earthquake in 1928 destroyed the school and there was not enough interest and supportto rebuild. By that time there were other schools available in Talca. From 1969 to 1999 the nuns returned to the city for parish work, a residence forUniversity students and other ministries. Today there is a group of associates in Talca and some Religious of the Sacred Heart meet with themregularly.

[6] It continued to do so until the school closed in 1968 and the children moved to the day school in Apoquindo in the suburbs of Santiago. A technical school in Clara Estrella, in another part of Santiago, was then opened to replace the free school. Today, both locations have more than a thousand students.

[7] Jeffrey Klaiber, SJ. The Catholic Church In Peru, 1821- 1985: A Social History. Washington: Catholic UP, 1992: 152. The same source says:"Undoubtedly, the most famous church-run teacher school in Peru is still the National Pedagogical Institute in Lima directed by the Religious ofthe Sacred Heart"

(348). In training teachers who go out to all parts of Peru to teach, the Society of the Sacred Heart has spread the Devotion to the Heart of Christ. In South America, the idea of forming "multipliers" has been a reason for undertaking ministries.

[8] Her successor was Angeles Alentado, a Cuban who was one of the first three Latina novices received into the Society by Aloysia Hardey at Manhattanville.