What they found created rather than solved a mystery.

Julie Siderfin, Sacred Heart associate and archivist at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Charles, Missouri, and Cleta Flynn, St. Charles County Historical Society member have been working together on academy history. At Julie’s suggestion Mrs. Flynn wrote an article for St. Charles County Heritage, bulletin of the historical society, about the small octagonal chapel on the grounds of the academy that housed Philippine Duchesne’s remains for almost 100 years. Julie delved into her records to supply the information and Mrs. Flynn did the same.

What they found created rather than solved a mystery.

The following is an excerpt from the article. The source of all the statements regarding the origins of the “little round house” came from one undated entry in the academy files written some time after the fact:

“Mother Aloysia Jacquet, superior from 1853 to 1856, built what is now the juniors’ study hall... She also built the shrine where Ven. Mother Duchesne’s remains are…The shrine on our front lawn was built in thanksgiving for a remarkable preservation from fire. It was called the Chapel [Nuestra Señora] del Pilar.”

All the sources say that the chapel was built in 1855, but the trouble was there was no evidence of a fire in that year. The only other natural disaster Julie knew of was a tornado but that was not until 1876. Then she did find a loose page containing a story about a fire at the school, but it started in the middle of a sentence; the previous page was missing, and it was undated.

The story of the building begins with the death of Philippine in the convent in St. Charles. Father Verhaegen of St. Charles Borromeo Church said the requiem Mass for her. An “unexpected crowd of friends” filled the pews. He wrote: “They laid her in a plain deal coffin, made by the village carpenter… .” After the requiem Mass she was laid to rest in the cemetery on the hillside. Father Verhaegen wrote: “I, the undersigned, buried the mortal remains of Madame Philippine Duchesne…she sweetly and calmly departed this life in the odor of sanctity on the 18th day of November, 1852.”

The journals say: “When Ven. Mother Duchesne’s remains were to be removed from the cemetery it was decided to put them under the Chapel del Pilar...as this was her favorite devotion.” But they had also said this: “The Rev. Fr. De Smet, who always entertained towards this venerable Mother a great veneration, gave us a new proof of it by coming himself to bless the first stone of the edifice… .”

Whatever the precise reason for the building of the chapel, immediately after its completion, “those who felt [Mother Duchesne] was too holy to have been buried the way ordinary people are prevailed, and her body was exhumed. It was still perfectly intact.” A daguerreotype was taken of Mother Duchesne’s body in case she was ever proposed for canonization. Her wooden coffin was then placed inside an iron sarcophagus “and was then interred in the little octagonal house in the front yard…The floor was made of wood and the tomb was covered by a trap door, which could be easily opened to view the coffin...Small upholstered benches were arranged around the wall.”

Again no fire! But in a copy of the St. Charles Bicentennial Edition of the St. Charles Banner News, printed in July 1969, there was a report of the building of the chapel and the fire. “Madam Aloysia [Mother Jacquet] had made a vow to erect a shrine in honor of Our Lady of the Pillar if a favor she sought was granted her.” Mother Jacquet’s request was granted and the chapel was constructed with the statue being placed on a pedestal over the altar. Father De Smet blessed the first stone. Immediately after the completion, the remains of the beloved founder of the Society in America were transferred from their former resting place and deposited in the vault.

But in 1875, a fire originated by a spark from the flue, broke out in the upper story of the middle building and threatened destruction to the entire place. Evidently the flames had been playing for some hours between the roof and the timbers before residents were aware of their danger; but as soon as the alarm was made public, the kind-hearted citizens of St. Charles flocked to their assistance...Unable to make the necessary repairs during the winter season, the religious waited for the coming of spring. A temporary roof prevented them from being exposed to the weather.

In February 1876, the fearful tornado, which almost devastated the city, augmented the damages caused by the fire. Nearly every pane of glass on the east side of the house was shattered into fragments; the fences and grape arbors were thrown down; trees uprooted and transported with the wind, and immense rocks, which supported the lower wall facing the street, were hurled from their places, adding an expense of several hundred dollars.

One mystery is cleared up: we can now insert the undated page starting in the middle of a remembrance of the fire, written later by Mother Annie Thatcher, who was a child at the convent when the fire broke out:  “…from nine o’clock in the morning until noon and left a large opening in the roof, though the damage might have been greater had not a bucket brigade been formed by a group of men who were entering the parish Church for mass…After the fire was extinguished, the hole in the roof was covered with a tarpaulin…

And we can now understand this entry in the house journal for June 1876: “The chapel of Mother Duchesne was renovated. The roof and the ceiling have been done over, and the interior painted. The dome is blue, the Eye of God is placed in the middle of Yahweh and surrounded by gold stars. The walls are paneled with a design in gold on each panel. The plaque above the door is engraved in Latin. On the golden slab in a silver frame, it indicates that here reposes Mother Duchesne…Our Rev. Mother had had made a zinc coffin in which the precious remains were placed, true relics for us. Three Jesuit Fathers came to bless the coffin and make the transfer.”

The fire and the tornado were the reason for rebuilding the chapel, not for its original building.

One mystery remains, however: what occasioned the naming of the little chapel in honor of Our Lady of the Pillar?

A devotion of Mother Jacquet?

A devotion of Philippine herself?