Two hundred years ago, Rose Philippine Duchesne set out across the Atlantic to establish the Society of the Sacred Heart and educate the children in the new world. Opening the first Catholic school west of the Mississippi, Mother Duchesne, known as "the woman who prays always," crossed frontiers to bring faith, love, and education to the world.

From a convent in France to the frontier of the New World... a child and then a nun in a convent boarding school dreamt of bringing the Gospel to the native peoples. She persevered through...