WOMEN MISSIONARIES TO CHILE
This exhibit will guide you through the journey of Mother Anna du Rousier to Chile, as recorded in The Life of Reverend Mother du Rousier (Translated Easter 1905), preserved in the Society of the Sacred Heart Archives, United States-Canada Province.
After arriving in the United States from France as a missionary in 1852, Mother du Rousier aided American religious houses in various cities over thousands of miles suffering from a nationwide cholera outbreak. On November 17, 1852, Reverend Mother Anna du Rousier (1806-1880) arrived in Saint Charles, Missouri. She journeyed to Saint Charles despite warnings of a severe storm. She was determined to reach Sister Rose Philippine Duchesne, a French missionary who founded communities of the Society of the Sacred Heart in the Midwestern United States. She reached Sister Duchesne to receive her blessing just hours before she passed.
At the time she received this blessing, Anna du Rousier’s life already illustrated global Catholicism. She was born on December 20, 1806 in Poitou, France. At age 12, she felt inspired to become a missionary and entered the Congregation at 17. She taught and oversaw orphan girls, founded convents in Parma and Padua, Italy, administered a school in Turin, Italy, and founded Houses of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Gratz, Austria; Lemberg, Poland; and Salucca, Italy. In May 1852, she transferred to North America and aided the cholera epidemic. Feeling a renewed spiritual charge from Sister Duchesne’s blessing in her final hours, Mother du Rosier accepted an invitation from Sister Madeleine Sophie Barat (1779-1865), the foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, to relocate once again to Chile to establish the Society of the Sacred Heart in South America.
Mother du Rousier selected Sisters Mary McNally (1814-1884) from London, England, and Antonietta Pissorno (1810-1873) from Piamonte, Italy. The women, representing three different nationalities, departed for Chile in August 1853. The women endured three long-distance voyages from New York to Jamaica, Jamaica to Panama, then down the western coast of South America, a rocky boat ride across the Isthmus of Panama, and several turbulent donkey rides before they arrived in Santiago, Chile. Mother du Rousier was 46 when she undertook this journey.
This exhibit will guide you through the journey of Mother du Rousier to Chile, as recorded in The Life of Reverend Mother du Rousier (Translated Easter 1905), preserved in the Society of the Sacred Heart Archives, United States-Canada Province. The full biography, originally written in French, is sixteen chapters and spans Anna du Rousier’s entire lifespan.
Anna du Rousier; Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart in South America
Mary McNally, Anna du Rousier, and Antonietta Pissorno ; Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“After eight days sailing rendered most painful by seasickness,” Mother du Rousier could barely stand. For the women missionaries traveling to the Pacific coast of South America, despite the punishing journey, “the hope of hearing Mass and above all of receiving our Lord, made them forget all they had suffered.” The women reached a state of exhaustion and depletion before their land journey even began.
Any relief they expected to find once concluding their water journey did not, unfortunately, actualize for the Sisters. After crossing the Isthmus of Panama, the August heat was suffocating and their next steps were unclear. It became apparent that the journey had only just begun. The best testament to their unwavering piety and steadfast endurance is a concern vocalized by Sister Antoinette, who exclaimed, “Mother will die in this heat and she is fasting!”
Weakened in foreign terrain under serious physical exertion, Anna du Rousier, Mary McNally, and Antonietta Pissorno needed more than endurance. They needed trust–in the goodness of strangers, the support of their companions, and in the Providence of God.
A local Panamanian woman named Raphaela suddenly presented herself and volunteered to guide the Sisters to their destination. It is not stated what exchange of information inspired Raphaela to volunteer herself, but her leadership was crucial to the success of the mission. The success of the mission depended not only on the Sisters themselves, but also on the goodwill of those already established in the destination.
The path they traveled to get to the southern coast of Panama narrowed into steep, uneven trails, cut through dense forest and rock, and the terrain shifted constantly. They traveled on donkeys when possible, trusting the animals to carry them over unstable terrain and along cliff sides. At times, the women had to lean forward onto the donkey’s head while scaling steep hills, and at other points they had to descend on foot. When on foot, they supported themselves with the hanging tree branches to avoid sinking into the mud.
At one point, a collision between two donkeys sent Mother du Rousier into a ravine. As she disappeared into the Earth’s crevice, everybody yelled in fear. Such a fall could be fatal, but the cavity was filled with clay, referred to as “red earth” by the text, which cushioned her landing. “Although bruised by her fall, Reverend Mother du Rousier remounted her mule” and continued the journey.
The guide yelled, “The senora has fallen!” The donkey had slipped, sending “our Mother into the abyss, which being over a hundred feet drop, she would have been crushed to pieces had her fall not been broken by the shattered trunk of a tree, which her good angel inspired her to clasp, and there suspended over the gulf she abandoned herself without the slightest fear to the care of Divine Providence.” In both cases, the women expressed gratitude for God’s presence and protection over Mother du Rosier’s falls.
The risk of tumbling from the donkeys was not the only danger the women faced on their journey into Chile. Storms swept through without warning; thick mud slowed their movement to a stumbling crawl; poorly lit passageways posed tripping hazards; and encounters with other travelers left them vulnerable to burglary.
The journey to Chile was not one of steady progress, but a sequence of interruptions, delays, dangers, and spur-of-the-moment decisions to manage external factors dictating their movement: weather, terrain, animals, and strangers. At the southern coast of Panama, the women boarded a steamboat named Santiago to transport them to Chile. The boat stopped at several ports, where the women would disembark and see the port cities. The only port stop recorded in the biography is their stop in Lima, where Mother du Rousier particularly enjoyed seeing richly decorated churches and relics. Although the path forward was rarely visible to the women, they courageously continued, a testament to their unwavering faith as they began their mission in Latin America.
The account records the dangers Mother du Rousier faced, the bruises that covered her, the cloak that offered the only cushioning for her bruised body to sleep on, but also her reactions to the journey’s dangers. Through the extraordinary trials, the women only repeated “How God loves them! How He loves them!” and never lost “peace of soul.” Sister Antoinette “nearly died of joy for she had passed the night in weeping and praying.” In a landscape defined by instability, Mother du Rousier remained unfazed by the slipping paths, unpredictable weather, and physical pains.
The Life of Reverend Mother du Rousier is not only a historical record. It is a devotional narrative, written to exemplify as much as to document the mission to Chile. Hardships are not merely described, but shaped into a proof of the role of women missionaries. Each obstacle becomes an opportunity to demonstrate holiness, and each danger a stage for the Sisters’ composure and faith. For these reasons, the text falls into the genre of hagiography. Hagiographies are the biographies that document and praise the virtuous lives of exemplary religious figures. Their purpose is to instruct others in perpetuating traditional religious characteristics and to inspire piety by highlighting case studies of profound devotion.
Arrival, Negotiation, and Building in Chile
Mother du Rousier’s arrival in Santiago, Chile in 1853 was not a moment of resolution, but the beginning of a series of negotiations that affected generations of Chileans. Their vessel arrived on September 12 in the port of Valparaiso, the women thrilled to ‘va al paraíso’, or go to paradise. The port is named after Valparaíso de Arriba, a town in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Valparaíso de Arriba is the hometown of Juan de Saavedra, a sixteenth-century Spanish soldier who established a Spanish presence in Valparaíso, Chile, which he named after his birthplace, in 1536. Chile remained a colony of the Spanish Monarchy until declaring its independence from Spain in the early nineteenth century.
For the women missionaries, Chile was paradise, as it was a region where they would come to dedicate 27 years to the flourishing of ministry in Santiago. After the perils of their journey, the language of paradise was refreshing, marking a shift from hardship to fulfillment, though the “paradise” they awaited would still require decades of labor to actualize.
Isthmus of Panama ; the route of the Panama Canal and connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Valparaíso ; the port closest to Santiago, Chile, located about 120km from the city center.
The Religious of the Sacred Heart had to prove themselves to the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Nuns, Fathers, Brothers, and Archbishops who occupied Chile. They had not prepared any buildings or supplies for the newly arriving missionary sisters, leaving Mother du Rousier with the responsibility for securing spaces and materials.
The Chilean government entrusted the Sisters with the instruction of young girls, as there were scarce opportunities for secondary education for females. This assignment demonstrates a recognition of the capabilities of Sacred Heart missionaries under Mother du Rousier, but also reveals the extent to which their work was embedded within existing Chilean political and social structures. Their mission was not to operate in isolation but required negotiation with state powers, alignment with educational priorities, and the ability to function within a culture that was not their own.
Their opportunity to teach emerged from a gradual organization of existing spaces and the vermin that occupied them. Although within their jurisdiction, the school they were assigned to oversee could not operate independently. Their work depended on the government officials and communities they were there to serve, as well as on their patience in adjusting to the students’ routines and expectations. This context demonstrates that the success of their mission depended on their ability to work within an existing world rather than stand apart from it. The Life does not dwell on any failures during this process, but it does recognize the persistent efforts required to make the mission cohere. Under Mother du Rousier, the women missionaries of the Sacred Heart reformed institutions and built trust through a consistent, noninvasive presence, all while enduring changes in climate, diet, and ill health, as well as perpetual fatigue.
Images of the spaces in which the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart worked.
Fachada ; Nuestra Señora de los Dolores ; Patio de la Vírgen (Lado Norte) ; Portería.
On May 1, 1854, the Normal School opened in Santiago with 40 students. The Sisters taught language, theology, history, mathematics, and worked to inculcate in their students habits of cleanliness and order. Mother du Rousier made preparations for additional Chilean foundations of the Sacred Heart in Talca, Valparaíso, Chillán, and Concepción in 1858, and for a foundation in Lima, which she completed in 1876. To display gratitude for the preservation of her life during the journey to Chile, Mother du Rousier established a chapel in honor of Saint Joseph, renowned for his quiet, unfaltering obedience to God. In 1888, a fire destroyed the convent, yet the chapel, “although surrounded by the flames, remained untouched, and still crowns the eminence on which it was built.” When reading of this miraculous survival of Mother du Rousier’s chapel, I cannot help but recall the resemblant resilience of Mother du Rousier herself as she journeyed to Chile.
The Life of Reverend Mother du Rousier tells the story of Mother du Rousier’s efforts and energy to sustain the mission. The Women Religious of the Sacred Heart depended on locals like Raphaela, donkeys, guides, and divine protection to arrive in Chile. They then became a point of orientation for others, supporting the education of girls, Catholic worship, and the Chilean mission. There is no founding scene, no celebration of when the mission is established, just a collection of stories revealing tenacity, devotion, and the rapid movement toward education. This supports the text’s hagiographic qualities, as it exemplifies the women missionaries’ constructive actions.
The narrative celebrates growth: more students, expanding local trust, and greater influence. The labor of the women missionaries behind these milestones is present in the account, but quietly, focusing on the celebration of teaching, the management of resources, and the efforts to bring stability to a new institution. From The Life, a portrait of Mother du Rousier emerges: she is not only the woman who survived the journey to Santiago and founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in South America, but the woman who stayed, maintained, and organized the scaffolding the mission needed to remain.
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Those interested in the life and achievements of Mother Anna du Rousier on behalf of the Society of the Sacred Heart should make an appointment to visit the Society of the Sacred Heart Archives, United States-Canada Province, in St. Louis, Missouri. I recommend starting with Marie Louise Martinez (ed.), “Southward, Ho!”: The Society of the Sacred Heart Enters “Lands of the Spanish Sea” (Society of the Sacred Heart, U.S. Province, 2003) in the library and the box entitled “II. Interprovincial Affairs B. Outside U.S.A. 1. Latin Am.; a) South Am. Box 1” in the archive.