Old St. Ferdinand Shrine and Historic Site is located at no. 1 rue St. Francois, Florissant, Missouri, and is owned, preserved, maintained, and protected by the non-profit organization, Friends of Old St. Ferdinand, Inc. The Shrine and Historic Site consists of four historic buildings on their original locations: the 1819 convent, 1821 church, 1840 rectory, and 1888 schoolhouse.
It was the center of St. Ferdinand Parish, and the area which became the city of Florissant was also known as the city of St. Ferdinand. (See Hanson House (Florissant, Missouri) article's sources...MRA doc)
The convent, church, and rectory may be visited for historic tours and religious pilgrimages. The schoolhouse may be used for public or private gatherings. Artifacts from virtually every era in Old St. Ferdinand's history are on display in the museum and throughout the buildings.
On July 26, 2022, Old St. Ferdinand Shrine was submerged with loads of water caused by major flooding. The historic building sustained water damage after the flooding incident.
Significance
The site represents a physical link to French and Spanish colonial times, the North American Jesuit Missions to the Native Americans as well as the home of Catholic education in the Midwest. The 1819 convent is the site of the first Catholic school between the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains. The 1821 Church is the oldest remaining church building built between the Mississippi River and Rockies Mountains. It was the home of the region's only canonized Catholic saint, Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne.
History
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. At that time, Dunegant issued a land grant to establish a church and priest's residence.
Local carpenter, Hyacenthe Deshetres oversaw the construction of the church. In 1789, Father Bernard de Limpach, a Capuchin friar, began serving as the first pastor. The church was built on the current site of Spanish Land Grant Park, on the southeast corner of the block bounded by rue St. Charles, rue St Ferdinand, rue St. Louis, and rue St. Denis. A parish cemetery was located next to the log church. The church was the center of ecclesiastical and civic life in St. Ferdinand de Fleurissant. While the church was used for sacramental and devotional purposes, the area outside its doors was used for proclamations, business and real-estate transactions, and meetings of a public nature. The old log church from the 1780s succumbed to a fire in 1836.
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. Among the religious DuBourg recruited following his ordination as bishop in 1815 was a member of the recently formed Religious of the Sacred Heart, Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne.
Duchesne established the first Catholic school for girls west of the Mississippi in St. Charles, Missouri, in 1818, then in 1819 relocated to Florissant. Later, she founded nine schools in the Louisiana Territory and received the vows of the first American women to enter religious life in the Midwest. 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. Pope John Paul II canonized St. Rose Philippine Duchesne in 1988.