Chapter Five: Rose-Philippine Duchesne

Question 1

bourgeoisie

Answer 1

the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or convention attitudes

Question 2

soiree

Answer 2

an evening party or gathering

Question 3

self-abnegation

Answer 3

the denial or humiliation of oneself

Question 4

cloister grille

Answer 4

a screen or divider, sometimes an enclosure, constructed usually of metal with small spaced openings in it which separates the convent or cloister from the outside world

Question 5

clothehorse

Answer 5

a person who is excessively concerned with wearing fashionable clothes

Question 6

postulant

Answer 6

a candidate, especially one seeking admission into a religious order

Question 7

inconstancy

Answer 7

changeable, fickle

Question 8

flophouse

Answer 8

a cheap rooming house

Question 9

convalesce

Answer 9

to recover health and strength gradually after sickness or weakness

Question 10

Describe Rose-Philippine Duchesne’s background in France

Answer 10

Duchesne was a member of the bourgeoisie, growing up in a French merchant family in Grenoble

Question 11

How did men’s and woman’s roles in the Church differ in the 18th century?

Answer 11

• Men had active exterior responsibilities (i.e. leadership, preaching)
• woman were to perfect the interior self through self-denial, seclusion, and prayer

Question 12

How did Philippe adjust to living at home once her order was disbanded?

Answer 12

She attempted to live her old role in the family home with her cousin and helped others by tending to priests in prison, connecting priests with the dying, tending to the sick,and teaching the poor.

Question 13

How did Philippe adjust to living at home once her order was disbanded?

Answer 13

She attempted to live her old rule in the family home with her cousin and helped others by tending to priests in prison, connecting priests with the dying, tending to the sick,and teaching the poor.

Question 14

Why did Philippine struggle to keep nuns at the convent upon its reopening?

Answer 14

The nuns struggled to reenter a convent after ten years of bourgeois comforts (they resisted giving up their possessions, resuming the rule, and being confined to the grille). The convent also served as a prison during the Revolution, which took its toll on the building.

Question 15

Who was Madeleine Sophie Barat?

Answer 15

• She was the superior of the Ladies of the Faith
  (Later known as the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)
• Before her death, she would be the superior of three thousand women over four continents.
• She brought Duchesne into her fold

Question 16

What was the French model of opening schools that Duchesne followed when opening her school in St.Charles?

Answer 16

She opened two adjacent schools – a boarding school with tuition and a free day school for the poor

Question 17

Which races were accepted and which were persecuted/rejected a Rose-Philippine Duchesne’s convent?

Answer 17

• Whites, Creole’s, and person of mixed race were accepted
• Black people and Native Americans were persecuted (the order even had slaves)

Question 18

What was Rose-Philippine Duchesne’s stance on slavery?

Answer 18

She treated the slaves at Sacred Heart much like servants in France, she instructed their children, and she nursed them, However she abstained from direct political engagement.