Around 1767, just a few years after
Pierre Laclede and
August Chouteau established the fur-trading village of
St. Louis, French plantation owners settled in an area they called "Fleurissant." In 1782, August Chouteau named François Dunegant the "Commandant of Fleurissant" and charged him with protecting the settlement from Indian attacks. The
Louisiana Territory had been ceded to Spain in 1763 and a 1788 census identified the settlement as "St. Ferdinand" with a population of 40 with seven plantations. In 1818, Bishop
Louis Dubourg arrived in St. Louis to establish his residence and Episcopal see. He went a long way to attract Catholic missionaries and educators to settlements throughout the territory, serving both pioneers from Europe and Native Americans. St. Ferdinand would be directly affected by DuBourg's evangelization program in the Upper Louisiana Purchase Territory. She succeeded in getting
Jesuits to settle in Florissant, and in 1840 to build a large, enduring rock building from limestone with walnut beams, the centerpiece of their
St. Stanislaus Seminary until they moved away in 1971. In her last years she would be called "Quah-kah-ka-num-ad" or "Woman-who-prays-always" by members of the Patowamie tribe. He established Catholic missions at the request of tribal chiefs and bishops. DeSmet arranged peace between warring tribes, calmed uprisings and negotiated a treaty for the U.S. government eventually befriending the famous chief,
Sitting Bull. Even Protestant writers remarked that he was the sincerest friend to the Native Americans. With the canonization of Duchesne in 1988, the
Archdiocese of St. Louis designated the historic complex as a shrine to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. == References ==