The Katy Trail was quiet Wednesday, Nov. 14, as a a trio of women hiked their way toward Marthasville.

With a light snow falling, there weren’t many people on the trail, but that didn’t bother them. They relished the solitude.

It created a more sacred experience, which is exactly why they were hiking that day — and the 21 days before that.

“The fall color was beautiful when we began, and now it’s snowing, and that’s beautiful too,” said Catherine Dantin, a member of  Immaculate Conception of Dardenne (ICD) Parish in Dardenne Prairie. “The river and the bluffs, it’s all very peaceful and pretty, sacred too.”

Her two companions, Margaret Johnson of Vancouver, Wash., and Ann Sieben of Denver, Colo., agreed.

By the time the three ladies ended their journey Sunday, Nov. 18, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, they had walked more than 335 miles across Missouri in celebration of the life and service of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, a pioneer missionary of the Society of the Sacred Heart, who came to St. Charles from France and founded the first free school west of the Mississippi in September 1818.

They were the third set of pilgrims to hike this route, which had been designed by Sieben, a consecrated layperson with the Society of Servant Pilgrims, in 2017. She hopes many more will follow and has made all of the details people will need to do so — contacts and phone number of parishes along the way who help by providing accommodations —available through the SSP website, societyofservantpilgrims.com/saint-rose/.

‘Very Camino-esque’

Sieben created the pilgrimage at the request of a St. Louis area man named Jim Adams, who had a devotion to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne and wanted a special way to mark the 200th anniversary of her coming to America.

He had heard Sieben speak at an American Pilgrims on the Camino convention in Belleville, Ill., she said, noting that her job is creating such pilgrimages. Known as “the winter pilgrim,” Sieben has traveled on foot in more than 44 countries since she gave up a career in nuclear engineering to become a pilgrim in 2007.

“I’m always either on a pilgrimage solo or helping other pilgrims,” she remarked.

“Generally some pilgrim will come to me and ask for help in finding a pilgrim trail because people can’t figure out the path or the accommodations so easily. So I help with this. I’m intrepid.”

In designing the Pilgrimage in Devotion to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, Sieben began by using Google Maps to plot out a path that began in Mound City, Kan., near where St. Rose Philippine Duchesne taught the Potawatomi Native Americans, and ended at her shrine collocated with the the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles where her tomb is located. 

The pilgrimage requires 26 days of walking and covers 335 miles. 

The first leg of the pilgrimage is on rural dirt roads, which are easy to follow and easy to find, said Sieben. The average daily distance is 13 miles, which requires four to five hours or more of walking to cover. In Clinton, Mo., the route connects with the Katy Trail all the way to St. Charles, which makes for an easy, leisurely walk. 

“It’s beautiful, and you can relax and really look around,” said Sieben.  

“This is a very Camino-esque pilgrimage,” she added, referring to the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) in Spain. “I designed it to be doable by almost all physical conditions. You don’t have to be young or a top athlete, because it’s mostly the Katy Trail, and it’s a flat, level and nice surface, compacted stone. I also organized it to be 13 miles on average a day, never exceeding 17. So people who can do the Camino de Santiago, they can do this. It’s local. You don’t have to speak Spanish.”

The portion of the Camino de Santiago that is in Spain covers around 530 miles. This pilgrimage in devotion to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne is shorter and has much easier terrain, said Sieben, noting the Camino terrain is more hilly and more challenging, as some is on paved road and some on a foot path.

This pilgrimage has another advantage over the Camino — park benches located along the Katy Trail portion. And now one of those benches has been dedicated to the pilgrims of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, provided by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of St. Louis, said Sieben. The bench is located between Jefferson City and Tebbetts, she said. 

First pilgrimage was in spring 2017

When Sieben made the first pilgrimage in spring 2017 with Adams and another man, Roscoe Hill, who were in their 70s and 80s, she did so as a way to test the route, to see if the daily distances were OK and to figure out options for accommodations.   

The idea is to have pilgrims connect with churches along the route and have the members or parishioners put them up for the night, said Sieben. But not knowing how far the pilgrims would be able to walk in a single day, she held off making any contacts or arrangements in advance of that first trip. 

“I would just run ahead of them to stop at the churches and ask about accommodations, and then I would run back and let them know it would work,” said Sieben. “So we did the first trip as exploratory with a lot of uncertainty.”

The trip went well, and a year later Sieben led another small pilgrimage, this time calling in advance to let churches know they would be passing through on certain days and ask if they could help. She did the same thing for the pilgrimage this fall. 

 “I’d say, ‘Remember me? I have more pilgrims,’ ” she said, noting the response from churches was overwhelmingly positive both times. 

“Everyone is saying, ‘Send more pilgrims!’ ” she remarked. 

That is how the Camino de Santiago operated 30 years ago, said Sieben. Pilgrims would stop at churches along the route asking if they could stay there, or they would ask some local person to put them up for the night. 

Now after three pilgrimages, Sieben has a spreadsheet listing daily starting points, destinations, distance, notes on accommodations (with phone numbers) and amenities, even some contact information. It’s posted on the societyofservantpilgrims.com/saint-rose/ site, along with an interactive map and more details for anyone wanting to make the trip.

There is even a pilgrim credential or passport that people can download from societyofservantpilgrims.com/saint-rose/. This is part of an age-old tradition, said Sieben.  

“When arriving at a church, inn, or family home, present the pilgrim credential and request a stamp, seal, or signature with the date and town recorded to certify the passage,” she said.   

‘More purposeful walking’

Dantin, 60, walked the Camino de Santiago last spring and loved it. She felt the same way on the devotion to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. 

“I love walking in general, but I really love being a pilgrim and walking,” said Dantin. “You are more purposely walking and walking in a more prayerful and reflective way. You get up in the morning, and what are you going to do today: You’re going to walk. That’s it. 

“You have one pair of clothes that you are wearing and another in your pack. When you get to where you’re walking to there will be a restaurant or people in the parish will feed you, you will have a place to sleep, and the next day you will get up and do it again.”

Dantin said she would often think of intentions as she walked. Sometimes she and the other ladies walked together and talked along the way. Other times they walked separately, at different paces.  

They started Oct. 23 at Sacred Heart in Mound City, Kan., which is located just south of Kansas City and over the Missouri state line. They had spent the day before at the shrine where St. Rose Philippine Duchesne had worked with the Native Americans. 

She appreciated when the route switched over to the Katy Trail.

“I don’t have to worry so much about where I’m putting my feet or where I’m going . . . my thoughts are free to roam, because I don’t have to worry about the rest of it,” she said. 

There were no days off on the pilgrimage. The ladies walked every day. It wasn’t always physically comfortable, but it was always rewarding, she said. 

“Every single day there is some point where things hurt, and the last mile especially,” said Dantin. “And I’ll be tired of walking and say, ‘Oh, God, why am I walking?’ I think that at some point every single day. But there’s also blessings and peacefulness, and I think that’s what I like about it the best. 

“There’s a peacefulness in my soul as I walk a pilgrimage that’s not the same doing anything else,” said Dantin. 

As someone who has hiked the Camino de Santiago, Dantin said she wants to spread the word that this pilgrimage in Missouri exists. 

“A lot of people go to Europe to do the Way of St. James. Guess what? There is a pilgrimage right here. It’s just 330 miles of peaceful countryside, and there are churches more than willing to take you in,” she said. “Catholic, Protestant . . . they are more than glad to be of service and they say, they have told us, they feel the blessings themselves being able to serve pilgrims.”

A trio of pilgrims walking the 335 miles from Mound City, Kan., to St. Charles, Mo., in devotion to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne made their way through Marthasville Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 14. Walking a daily distance of around 13 miles, the ladies (who ranged in age from 50s to 70s) contacted local churches along the route to help in finding overnight accommodations. Anyone wanting to follow the same pilgrimage will find details, notes and contact information at societyofservantpilgrims.com/saint-rose/.