Rose Prince was a Dakelh

Dakelh

The Dakelh or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada.Most Carrier call themselves Dakelh, meaning "people who go around by boat"...

 woman who has become the subject of a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

.

Biography

Rose Prince was born in Fort St. James

Fort St. James, British Columbia

Fort St. James is a district municipality and former fur trading post in north-central British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Stuart Lake in the Omineca Country, at the northern terminus of Highway 27, which connects to Highway 16 at Vanderhoof...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, in 1915, the third of nine children belonging to Jean-Marie and Agathe Prince. Jean-Marie was descended from the great chief Kwah

Kwah

Kwah is the usual English form of the name of the famous Carrier leader Kw'eh. He was born around 1755 and died in 1840. Chief Kw'eh was the chief of what is now the Nak'azdli band in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries...

, while Agathe had been raised in Williams Lake by the Sisters of the Child Jesus. When the Lejac Residential School

Lejac Residential School

Lejac Residential School was part of the Canadian residential school system and one of the 130 boarding schools for First Nations children that operated in Canada between 1874 and 1996. Operated by the Roman Catholic Church under contract with the government of Canada, construction was completed on...

 was built in 1922, Rose was sent there along with the other children from her school, as part of the Canadian residential school system

Canadian residential school system

-History:Founded in the 19th century, the Canadian Indian residential school system was intended to assimilate the children of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada into European-Canadian society...

.

When Prince was 16, still attending school at Lejac, her mother and two youngest sisters died from an influenza outbreak. Devastated, she opted not to return home for the summers, but to stay on at the school instead. After graduation, she stayed on at the school, completing chores such as mending, cleaning, embroidering and sewing.

Perfectly preserved

At some point, Prince contracted tuberculosis, and by the age of 34 she was confined to bed. On August 19, 1949, she was admitted to the hospital and died the same day. After her burial, she lay undisturbed for two years. In 1951, however, a number of graves were moved from the west side of the school to a larger nearby cemetery, and during the move, Rose Prince's casket broke open. It is claimed that, to the astonishment of the workers, Prince's body and clothing had not decayed, despite the years that had passed since her death. Those present said the only odour eminating from her coffin was the sweet smell of roses. Other bodies examined all showed signs of decay, even those who had died after Prince.

Pilgrimage

Decades later, Father Jules Goulet, called for a pilgrimage to Lejac. Although only 20 people gathered the first year (1990), awareness has grown dramatically through passing years. In 1995, 1200 people made the trip to Lejac, coming from the region and even other provinces. Father Goulet's prayers and anointments

Anointing of the Sick

Anointing of the Sick, known also by other names, is distinguished from other forms of religious anointing or "unction" in that it is intended, as its name indicates, for the benefit of a sick person...

at the site have even been claimed to heal the chronically injured.

External links

• Rose Prince Web Site
• Diocese of Prince George - Lejac Pilgrimage
• Uncorrupted: The Story of Rose Prince - A documentary film about Rose Prince.