‘Little Rose’ to enter RI Hall of Fame
WOONSOCKET – Marie Rose Ferron, “Little Rose,’’ a local religious figure, once drew hundreds of devotees to the city before she died in 1936 at the age of 33. But on Sunday, Little Rose will be remembered again when she is inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
Woonsocket’s Albert G. Beauparlant, a member of the Heritage Hall of Fame’s board of directors, nominated Marie Rose Ferron for inclusion in a class of 11 posthumous inductees from the 1920s to the 1940s who will be honored at the Hall of Fame’s 21st Annual Historical Convocation ceremony in Bristol. The gathering will be held in the historic Bristol Statehouse and Courthouse at 240 High St. on Sunday beginning at 2 p.m.
In addition to Ferron, the inductees include James Henry Kiernan, Congressman and Justice Jeremiah Edward O’Connell, Secretary of State and Judge Louis Cappelli, Christopher LaFarge, Bishop Francis P. Keough, William J. and Thomas F. Gilbane, Henry M. Leland, U.S. Senator Jesse Metcalf & Louisa Sharpe Metcalf, Dr. Marcus F. Wheatland, and Sarah J. Eddy.
The inductions of the late Rhode Island notables are part of an ongoing effort by the Heritage Hall of Fame to honor people who made a significant contribution to the state or were worthy of notice in their chosen field or had a role in impacting others in their time, according to Beauparlant.
The prior recognition ceremonies have included Rhode Islanders such as the state’s founder, Roger Williams,
Gov. Thomas W. Dorr, Anne M. Hutchinson, Gen. Nathanael Greene, Wampanoag Chief Massasoit, also known as Ousamequin, the Rev. William Blackstone of Valley Falls, and Monsignor Charles Dauray, the founder of Woonsocket’s first French-Canadian parish.
Beauparlant said he decided to nominate Ferron for the Hall of Fame based on the fervor her devotees showed during her lifetime and right up to today.
“She brought a lot of notoriety not only to Woonsocket but to the state of Rhode Island,” Beauparlant said.
Ferron was a stigmatic and showed the stigmata, the wounds of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, on her body. Her devotees believed she had the ability to heal others while taking on the pain and health problems they suffered.
Suffering from several ailments from an early age, she was bedridden in the latter part of her life and under the care of family members and friends who watched over her 24 hours a day.
Beauparlant gained his own connection to the story of Little Rose when he was just young student at the St. Ann Catholic School in Woonsocket. Beauparlant, one of nine siblings in his family growing up on Cass Avenue, said he was somewhat of a troublemaker for the sisters at St. Ann school and a friend of his family, Richard Ayotte, the longtime owner of Ayotte Printers, made attempts to help him out.
Ayotte is a very devout person and looked to his faith to help with problems, according Beauparlant.
“He took me up to see the monks at the monastery in Spencer, Mass., and then he took me on Saturday’s to pray at the Little Rose Chapel on Providence Street.
The chapel was maintained by one of Ferron's siblings and at times drew large gatherings of the faithful to pray and reflect upon her life.
“We would pray and visit with the people there,” Beauparlant recalled.
Ayotte also printed up little cards that would have an image of Ferron and a prayer and whenever a new one came out he would pass it along, Beauparlant said. “I would visit him in his shop, and he would say “make sure you are praying to Little Rose, Al,” Beauparlant said.
Apparently, the attention to Ferron’s memory had some impact on him, Beauparlant said, and eventually, after leaving high school in the 11th grade, he joined the Army and earned his GED. He served in the National Guard and went onto earn his bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and participated in the ROTC program at Providence College.
He has since become a real estate developer and property manager and said all of that may not have been possible without those visits to Providence Street many years ago.
“I was the bad boy of St. Ann’s, I really was, and now I am on the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame,” Beauparlant said.
“Her induction to the Hall of Fame is a miracle in and of itself,” Beauparlant said of how he was able to make Ferron’s nomination.
Beauparlant said he still occasionally pulls out his Little Rose card and finds that it helps him past any “trials and tribulations” that arise.
He has also visited her grave in Precious Blood Cemetery as many others still do to this day, and will return feeling ready to take on the challenges ahead. He found that to be true when he was planning the city’s 100th anniversary celebration in 1988, and again for the 125th Anniversary gala on Main Street in 2013 that featured the construction of a towering arch over the street. “It actually works,” he said. Beauparlant believes Ferron continues to hold a role in helping local residents if they look to her. “She drew many people to her faith and there are many stories of her healing people,” he said.
Today, David Ethier of Burrillville, another of Little Rose’s devotees, has created a non-profit foundation that is working to establish a museum for Marie Rose Ferron and a place to reflect on her story at a property it has acquired at 339 Arnold St.
The foundation’s members will also be attending the induction ceremony for Little Rose, he said, and a Valley Transportation bus will be at the Foundation’s stone-built onetime office of a fuel company on Arnold Street at 12:30 p.m. to pick up people wishing to make the trip to Bristol. “The bus ride is free and will be handicapped accessible,” Beauparlant said.