upon for another foundation. Father
Delacroix, the predecessor of Father Van Quickenborne, as pastor of
Florissant, was a holy and learned Belgian priest, whom Bishop Dubourg
used to call his angel. He had the highest opinion of Mother Duchesne's
sanctity, and became a lifelong friend of hers. After leaving
Florissant, he was stationed upon the Mississippi River, at a
considerable distance above New Orleans. Before long, with the
approbation of Bishop Dubourg, he asked for a foundation of the
Religious of the Sacred Heart in his neighborhood. His petition was
readily granted, and a location was chosen in the Parish of St. James.
To meet the first expenses of the building, the zealous pastor handed
over eighteen thousand dollars, which he had collected for the purpose.
This was the house known as St. Michael's. Mother Aude was its first
Superior, and soon it was in as flourishing a condition as that of Grand
Coteau.

Two years later, 1827, Father Neil, one of the resident pastors of St.
Louis and director of the college founded by Bishop Dubourg, asked for
and obtained a foundation in that city. This was what Mother Duchesne,
as well as Mother Barat, had been wishing for from the very beginning.
Moreover, though Mother Duchesne had no idea of giving up Florissant, it
was too distant from the city for convenience, and besides various other
drawbacks, every rain flooded the convent grounds, greatly adding to the
hardships endured by the nuns. She applied to Mr. John Mullanphy, a
wealthy capitalist, asking him to sell her one of the houses he owned in
St. Louis, and he gave her one, with twenty-four acres of ground on the
outskirts of the city, together with some assistance in money, on
condition that she would, in perpetuity, keep twenty orphans. The house
had the name of being haunted on account of the strange, unearthly
noises heard in it, especially at night. That circumstance did not
frighten Mother Duchesne, who soon discovered that the ghosts were
nothing but cats that dropped down the chimneys to hold their nightly
assemblies in the vacant rooms. On the first of May of that same year
she took possession of the house with one companion, and remained there
as Superior, leaving Mother Lucille Mathevon in her place at Florissant.
The following year she had in her charge twelve boarders, ten orphans
and forty day pupils, most of the latter having been received gratis.

Here, as elsewhere, her life was one of extreme po