arity, founded by the Father Nerinckx, near the
head of the Bayou Lafourche, in the present State of Louisiana, and now
threatened with extinction for want of vocations. The devoted prelate's
earnest request could not be refused, but the foundation was an
unpromising one from the beginning, and a few years later it had to be
closed.

The following year, 1828, as there were already six American houses,
Mother Barat directed Mother Duchesne to assemble their superiors in a
Provincial Council, in order to take measures for securing uniformity of
action among them; and, to spare them the trouble of coming to her,
Mother Duchesne went down to meet them at St. Michael's. After the
Council she visited the houses in Louisiana, and was able, in her report
to the Mother General, to give a very favorable account of them all
except that of Lafourche where, to say nothing of other obstacles to
success, the directions given by her in accordance with the intentions
of Mother Barat, had not been understood or carried out.

CHAPTER V

SERIOUS CROSSES

God's saints have never been spared the cross of contradiction, and
Mother Duchesne was no exception to the rule. Mother Barat heard from
various persons that she was too austere, too narrow, too unwilling to
adapt herself to the requirements of the times; and this, it was said,
was why the houses in Missouri were not progressing. By these critics,
their backwardness was contrasted with the flourishing condition of the
Southern houses. There were numerous reasons for this difference.
Louisiana had been colonized a century earlier; its people were wealthy
and prosperous; nearly all spoke the French language, and as yet there
was little or no competition; whereas entirely opposite conditions
prevailed in Missouri. Mother Barat, however, heard these charges so
often that she began to fear they were true, and to consider that it was
time to place the government of the St. Louis house, at least, in the
hands of a younger superior, who would have a clearer understanding of
the needs of the times. But before taking a step which was very much
against her inclination, she consulted Bishop Rosati, in 1832. His
answer was that the removal of Mother Duchesne from her office would
result in the collapse of the houses in Missouri, as there was no one
else capable of bearing the burden of governing them; that the slowness
of success for which she was blamed, was due to difficulties inherent in
t