Living faithfully and with radical abandonment,
Servant of God Michelle Christine Duppong inspires a generation of Catholics to live a vocation to a holiness of life
It was going to be a rough day. Michelle was due for her first major surgery of what would be many to come for the thirty-year-old missionary from Haymarsh, North Dakota. Finding out you have cancer is devastating. Finding out that the cancer is advanced and you only have a few months to live is unfathomable for someone so full of life.
That day, Jessica Navin happened to be in North Dakota as Michelle was getting ready to undergo her surgery.
“The first thing that Michelle would ask when she saw you is, how are you today? … even though Michelle was very sick, she still cared deeply about how people were doing.”
“She asked me to pray with her,” continued Jessica, manager of spiritual formation at FOCUS, “She said that her major fear was that the cancer was so advanced that doctors would have to remove her womb.”
The Lord, in His ultimate grace and omniscient wisdom, would answer her prayer. But not in the way anyone in Haymarsh or, for that matter, across the country, could fathom.
The ordinary woman from Haymarsh
“She is just like you and I. She is just like your coworkers, your family members.”
IMAGE: Michelle Duppong Guild
Michelle Christine Duppong was born on January 25, 1984 on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. The apostle said in his first letter to the Thessalonians, “our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.”
The great evangelist, who was deeply converted on the road to Damascus, served the same mission that the Lord called Michelle to; one of zealous evangelization backed up by action. She was proud of the fact she shared a birthdate with the feast commemorating the turning point in this great evangelist’s life.
She grew a deep conviction and devotion to God. She also developed a passion for horticulture. If you knew the family, this wouldn’t have been too surprising. You see, growing up on a farm, of the six Duppong children, three became horticulture majors. Mary Ann, Michelle’s mother believes it was because “they had such a connect with growing things and enjoying to see the plants produce.” Perhaps this is where Michelle developed her propensity towards leading souls; nurturing souls to love God and life.
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After she finished college, she became an employee of the diocese as the Director of Faith Formation. The young missionary from Haymarsh took great pride in her work and prayed that she could do the work justice. As part of that job she found herself pouring over plans for an upcoming conference.
“Her little mortification was to offer up things like condiments for her meal,” said Cheryl Hansen, advocate at the Diocese of Bismarck, “especially if she knew she was going to be approaching or talking or doing something to engage with others, fellow college students, or people that she felt needed to hear about Christ so she would omit ketchup, simple things like that, on her French fries.”
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As she sat in a restaurant contemplating the upcoming conference, she decided to have her fries without ketchup this time.
The conference was The Thirst – hosted every few years in the Diocese. To no one’s surprise, Michelle hit it out of the park.
“After it was over, or in the midst of it all, I remember visiting with Michelle, and she wept,” said Hansen, “She wept. And it was, I think, out of tears of joy, because God filled her with so much grace to do it. And it was so beautiful.”
Hansen is an advocate and part of the Michelle Duppong Guild – an appointment within the Diocese of Bismark to help serve, promote, and support the bishop in Michelle’s cause within the diocese.
“She was – I mean – extraordinary, but showed in her ordinariness, how with God’s grace we can all achieve that which is amazing.”
You see, Michelle Duppong – or as is proper to say now, Servant of God Michelle Duppong – was a former FOCUS missionary, an employee of the Diocese of Bismark, and an overall normal child of God. And now, her cause for canonization has been opened.
His Excellency, The Most Reverend David Kagan, Bishop of the Diocese of Bismark, formally accepted and published the postulator’s petition and initiated the Cause for her beatification and canonization on All Saints Day, 2022.
“She is just like you and I. She is just like your coworkers, your family members,” says Hansen, “She was, I mean, extraordinary, but showed in her ordinariness, how with God’s grace, we can all achieve that which is amazing.”
IMAGE: Michelle Duppong Guild
The woman becomes a missionary
“She loved evangelizing through friendship, and she would disciple students in FOCUS. She would walk with them together towards the Lord.”
After her undergraduate studies, Michelle applied to work as a FOCUS Missionary. FOCUS is a Catholic outreach organization, founded in 1998 as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.
“FOCUS offers discipleship – so we walk together with other people in discipleship of the Lord,” says Jessica Navin, “When Michelle was in FOCUS, it was just on college campuses, but now it is also in parishes as well.”
In addition to serving in her role as manager of spiritual formation at FOCUS, Navin serves as Executive Producer of the film Radiating Joy which seeks to tell Michelle’s story.
“Michelle really thrived in FOCUS, because she loved evangelizing through friendship. She would walk with them together towards the Lord,” says Navin, “Michelle didn’t stop with bringing one person to the Lord. She would teach them that the most important thing that you can do is bring other people to the Lord. That is the best way to love your neighbor.”
…the most important thing that you can do is bring other people to the Lord…
“Michelle was just known for focusing on other people. Even throughout her time in FOCUS, she always wanted to know other people, and wanted them to get to know her and just share life together, share friendship.”
IMAGE: FOCUS
Though her impact on the lives of others was initially known only to those she mentored, all it took was a visit from a documentary crew to really show the depths of the lives she had touched. In search of projects to help FOCUS missionaries grow in their faith, Navin and her team drove to North Dakota to start telling the Michelle Duppong story for their staff – an internal, training video sort of thing.
“We had some interviews set up with Michelle’s family and with some of her friends. And while we were there, people started contacting us, saying, ‘I’ve heard about what you’re doing. I have a story that I want to share about Michelle. Can I be part of this?’ For me, that was remarkable, because most people don’t like to be on camera…We ended up with over 30 hours of footage.”
After Michelle’s Cause was opened, everyone knew the deeper story had to be told – thus, Radiating Joy was born. Directed by Danny Anderson of Anderson Art and including numerous friends, mentors, and family members of Michelle, the film beautifully captures her life.
Michelle Duppong in 2015 after being hospitalized with cancer. IMAGE: Michelle Duppong Guild
Radical abandonment radiates in the Missionary’s life
“When people would come into her room…she’d be like, thank you so much, how are you?”
Michelle was diagnosed with cancer in December of 2014. The film captures what this year was like for Michelle – in the words of Dr. Leo Taiberg in the film, “I don’t know if it’s possible to appreciate the level of pain and suffering. You could be suffering from thinking not only you’re dying and your time is limited. You could be thinking that, for example, why it’s me. In Michelle’s case there was nothing like that.”
The Apostle Paul once wrote, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”
Radical abandonment and redemptive suffering are very apparent in Michelle’s life – this utmost trust and surrender to God. You could see it in how she treated people.
“Even though Michelle was very sick, she still cared deeply about how people were doing, so much so that she became a well-known figure in the cancer treatment center she was at,” tells Navin, “staff from that center and other patients would start coming to her room, and she would make them paper origami. And you can see it all throughout the hospital. And she would always ask them how they were doing, and they would pour out their troubles to this woman who was suffering terribly from cancer.”
Letter and image courtesy of Michelle Duppong Guild
In the film Michelle’s sister, tells the story of her interactions with hospital staff:
“When Michelle would call down to the cafeteria, she would always say, ‘this is Michelle Duppong in room such-and-such, how are you today? Oh good, I’m glad to hear that’…When people would come into her room…she’d be like, thank you so much, how are you?”
“It goes back to being present and looking outside of herself, And she modeled how we were able to just be present and say, ‘How’s your day going today?’ or ‘How are you today?’” says Hansen of the Michelle Duppong Guild, “I know that made a big impact, especially on the people in that last year of her care where she was able to step outside of her own self, her own suffering, and be interested in the other person.”
The Missionary and an answered prayer
“I got an email saying that they were anticipating the birth of their child. They had found out the child was a girl…and they were naming her Michelle”
After being diagnosed with stage four cancer and getting ready for her first major surgery, her greatest worry was that she would no longer be able to have children. Jessica Navin was in North Dakota during this time and prayed with her:
“Michelle knew that her cancer was very advanced. I happened to be visiting North Dakota and she asked me to pray with her, and she said that her major fear was that the cancer was so advanced that doctors would have to remove her womb.”
IMAGE: FOCUS
Now, they didn’t pray that the doctors wouldn’t remove her womb – instead, they prayed together “that she would have lots of children.”
The Lord in his mysterious way, seemingly chose to not grant his missionary’s request: “After that surgery, she found out they did remove her womb.”
Michelle suffered greatly during the last year of her life and many people identify her losing the ability to have children as one of the greatest – Navin called it, “her greatest suffering.” It can be hard, to experience tragedy and worse yet, experience what one can only believe to be silence from God.
The Apostle Paul also prayed fervently and wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians that he prayed to the Lord three times for a “thorn” to leave him – but the Lord instead gave him the grace to carry on.
IMAGE: FOCUS
In radical abandonment, Michelle also received that same grace – to carry on when many others wouldn’t.
“One religious sister who’s visited a lot of people with cancer, said that coming into Michelle’s presence – walking into her hospital room – was like walking into a chapel. And I think that’s just an extraordinary testimony to Michelle’s openness to God, but also what God can do in one soul.”
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“A young mom had written and said that their baby in utero wasn’t expected to live. The brain had only developed one percent …
It’s been two years since the Bishop of Bismark announced the opening of the Cause of Canonization for Michelle Duppong. The reactions of Michelle’s parents and friends at the announcement were full of emotion and love.
As the Michelle Duppong Guild works on the cause, stories flow in about Michelle’s intercessions. Hansen told of an email she received almost a year ago:
“A young mom had written and said that their baby in utero wasn’t expected to live. The brain had only developed one percent in six months, but the mom had come across a story about Michelle – and Michelle has been kind of a patron of women who have infertility and difficult pregnancies, it’s kind of a theme that’s rising. I sent her out some information, and we mailed her cards and told her we would be praying. And then just recently, I got an email saying that they were anticipating the birth of their child.”
“Before the anticipated birth of the baby, like eight months, close to nine months, they had done another test, and the baby had grown from that one percent to ninety-some-percent brain development in a very, very short time. And so that, to me, that was just miraculous. They had found out the child was a girl, and they were naming her Michelle. And just a few days ago, I got a picture of this baby who is now fully developed growing and thriving.”
Navin tells a similar story:
“A friend of mine was struggling for five years to become pregnant, and she prayed a novena to every saint in heaven. And so I told her, why don’t we try praying a novena to Michelle and just see what happens? …she got pregnant during that novena and then she gave the Novena to two women who she knew, who were infertile, and they also got pregnant. And I gave it to three women I knew, and they also got pregnant.”
Bishop Keagan. IMAGE: Michelle Duppong Guild
Two years later, the Cause for the Canonization of Michelle Duppong is still being investigated. The process is slow and meticulous. Only the Lord, in his infinite wisdom, knows to what extent she will be recognized by the greater Church. But it remains clear that the Lord has bigger plans for Michelle – to grow and help children far more than her own, impacting the lives of those throughout the world.
Bishop Kagan’s homily that day two years ago said it best –
“Michelle lives. She no longer is with us physically, but it’s our faith and our hope that has brought us here with that confidence, which only God can give us with his peace, that she lives with him. In time, the Church, God willing, will hold her up, not just to us, but to the world as an example of what the church has constantly taught us about our first vocation. We receive it in baptism. It is the vocation to a holiness of life.” ■
“In time, the Church, God willing, will hold her up, not just to us, but to the world”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Support the cause of Servant of God Michelle Duppong by donating to the Michelle Duppong Guild. Contributions assist the Guild in their efforts and go towards expenses like outreach materials, prayer cards, and more.
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A.C. Warmack is a journalist, feature writer, and an editor of FAMIGLIA whose work is rooted in the belief that every life is a living chapter in the Church’s unfolding story of grace. An accomplished storyteller, he is inspired by St. Anthony of Padua’s radical acceptance and trust of God’s will and zeal for Christ – writing with the conviction that sainthood is not reserved for the few but offered to all—and that every honest story is, at its core, a search for the soul and for the God who gives it life.
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