Today October 6

While today is the feast of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusians, we are going to go with the OTHER saint of today: Blessed Rose Marie Durocher (1811 - 1849). She was born on this date in 1811, the tenth of 11 children in a little village near Montreal. She was always sickly, which led her to be rejected by religious orders. She always sort of wanted to be a nun but figured she never could. She never thought of herself as handicapped or an invalid: she was kind of a tomboy, loved sports and hunting and fishing, rode horses, and got a good education. When her mother died when Rose Marie was 18, she got a job as the housekeeper at the rectory where her brother was priest (in Beloeil). Her brother was rather a jerk to her, but she always maintained her gracious disposition. I was a little surprised to read (in my sources) some criticism of her for "taking" such cold treatment from him for 2 years. I thought Christians were supposed to turn the other cheek. Hey, I'm all for civil rights and defending your rights against abusers, but I think there's room for being agreeable to your brother or your employer even if he's being a jerk. What was that stuff about loving your enemies?

She decried the lack of education for girls . . . in every parish . . . but felt it was something for someone ELSE to solve. After all, she was just one woman, and a laywoman at that! But her spiritual director, Father Pierre Telmon, thought otherwise. After a period of intense training, she agreed not only to take her vows, but to take them as foundress of a whole new order, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. She set up a mission on the banks of the St. Lawrence across from Montreal. She worked fast and diligently, which was a good thing, it turned out, as she was dead herself in 6 years. Today there are 1300 sisters in Canada, the US, Africa, and Central and South America. Blessed Rose Marie, pray for us.