To help pave the way to the National Eucharistic Congress July 17–21, 2024, we are thrilled to present the American Eucharistic Witnesses. These are holy men and women who lived, loved, and served on the very soil upon which we now stand. They all testify—in unique and powerful ways—to what it means to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist and go on mission with him for the life of the world. Each month of these past year, we have features a new witness. Old and young, men and women, representing different cultural families and vocations, these men and women show us—in living color—what holiness looks like. We are thrilled to partner with American artist Connor Miller, who is creating an original woodcut print of each witness to help us visually engage with this creative new series.
Have you ever imagined a saint coming from the middle-of-nowhere Midwest? Just as much as California, New York, and Louisiana are the land of saints, so is North Dakota. At least, there is a good chance North Dakota will be! Servant of God Michelle Duppong’s cause for canonization was opened in 2022. This four-wheeler-loving, farm-grown young woman could be the first saint from the Peace Garden state!
Michelle Duppong was born on January 25, 1984, one of six children lovingly raised by Ken and Mary Ann in Haymarsh, North Dakota. She grew up tending to the farm’s many gardens, shepherding the sheep, and going to the Holy Mass with her family at St. Clement Oratory. After Michelle had powered through her daily tasks, she would have fun with her sisters and brother climbing hay bales and riding four-wheelers around the farmland. Michelle nurtured her relationships like the farmland she tended: with an active hand and heart. She was an ordinary little girl with exceptional wonder and joy in the Lord.
“Aside from constantly opening her own home to share her faith and enthusiasm for music and dancing,” her obituary states, “one of her greatest joys was in sharing her love for Haymarsh and the family farm with others.”
After graduating from Glen Ullis High School as valedictorian, Michelle studied horticulture at North Dakota State University. It was through the Newman Center there that she first encountered the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), which took her spirit-driven faith to a new level. She graduated with her degree in 2006 and was hired to be a full-time FOCUS missionary. With docility and joy, Michelle moved from campus to campus to start or bolster FOCUS initiatives, inviting all to enjoy the love of the Lord, especially in the Eucharist. She went wherever she was needed with heartfelt docility—because if God wanted her to do so, she would do so without hesitation.
“She was just very comfortable in her identity as a daughter of God, where she could just be fully herself at any time,” recounted Brandon Diegel, a fellow FOCUS missionary, in an interview with The Pillar. He met Michelle in 2008 during her time in South Dakota, and he has not forgotten her spirit, her smile, and her Christlike love.
Friends remember Michelle similarly, immersed in conversation and genuinely interested in every person she spoke to. They also remember her being a little hard to find during Holy Hours, as she spent at least the first half curled up in prayer on the floor! It was clear to all that she loved the Eucharistic Lord and that she knew he was present to her. She loved the rural, semi-isolated lands of Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota—and she loved the people who lived in each place even more. She even loved them to the point that she would correct FOCUS missionaries in their attitudes if need be, a few recounted!
Diegel remembers Michelle’s humble leadership well. “As the team director [for the FOCUS Missionaries], she carried a lot of that burden, but you would never know it. She just had this true peace and joy that radiated from her.”
“She was very reverent,” recalled Brittany Diegel, another FOCUS missionary. “I remember when she would pray, it was with such passion.… So very filled with hope, but totally resigned to God’s will.”
Michelle’s unyielding confidence in God’s call led to a career change in 2012 when she accepted the position of Director of Adult Faith Formation for the Diocese of Bismarck. She worked directly with Bishop David Kagan to create new Eucharistic encounters for adults all over the diocese. She continued to learn about the beauty of a Eucharist-based apostolate and added writing, symposiums, and videos to her evangelization. She spent her full-time hours and beyond encouraging adults to grow closer to the Lord in the Eucharist. To help them connect even more, whether in good spirits or deep in the throes of suffering, she proposed to Bishop Kagan that the diocese host a THIRST Eucharistic Conference in Bismarck in 2013. THIRST continues to this day in the Diocese of Bismarck, one place of many that bear Michelle’s fingerprints still radiating Christ’s light.
Michelle wanted the best for every soul she encountered, and this was most clear in her sufferings. Even as a child, Michelle would offer inconveniences and frustrations of her day for the sake of souls, including her family and friends. In spirit, Michelle was prepared for what was to come when she began experiencing sharp, consistent abdominal pain in 2014. While doctors initially diagnosed her with ovarian cysts, it was quickly proven to be a misdiagnosis by December of the same year.
It was far worse than ovarian cysts: 30-year-old Michelle had stage IV colon cancer. Doctors estimated she had two months to live.
Two months came and went, and Michelle still greeted her visitors and care team from her hospital bed, even after surgeries or long treatments. She still sang praise and worship with colleagues and friends, and her laugh was still a staple of her family’s day. Monsignor James Shea, who had worked with Michelle to establish FOCUS at the University of Mary in North Dakota, was awed at her in the wake of her diagnosis: “How beautiful to have the example of someone who accepted, with serenity, both the joys and suffering of her life. Michelle never forgot about the power of redemptive suffering.”
Michelle begged to attend Mass when she could hardly stand and regularly had chaplains visit her during her hospital stays. She watched sunrises and thanked her family for their care. Her clear understanding of her suffering was simple, just like her understanding of her daily farm chores: if God wanted this for her, and she was meant to endure it, then endure it she would. And she would do so with a smile for the sake of souls until she met the Lord face to face.
Michelle died on Christmas Day in 2015, one year after her diagnosis. She was 31, and her reach has continued nearly ten years past her departure. Mary Ann and Ken Duppong receive letters, emails, and many, many stories of people touched by Michelle’s life, even if they had never met her face to face. Her joy radiated in every encounter she had, and even in her pain and suffering, Michelle did not despair. Her persevering hope and peace woke up many who heard her story to how they could offer their own sufferings, great and small, with joy and for the sake of souls.
At her funeral, copies of a letter she had written to Jesus prior to her death were distributed. Brittany and Brandon Diegel remember it as “just beautiful” in its acceptance of her cross and its witness to her love for others in her suffering. “If you take me home soon,” she wrote, “please fill my family and friends along with the multitudes... with joy and peace knowing that your love wins in the end.”
Her cause for canonization was opened by Bishop Kagan seven years later, on November 1, 2022—the Solemnity of All Saints. And with Michelle’s love for community, for Eucharistic connection, and for the protection of souls, there was hardly a better feast day to bestow upon her the title of “Servant of God.”
“I think when you think of saints, you picture them as these flawless, perfect human beings,” Brandon Diegel reflected. “And when I think of Michelle, she was this incredibly joyful, pure woman, but a friend. Goofy and very approachable.”
Joy, humility, purity, and goofiness: these seem to provide the makings of a modern-day saint, like we hope Servant of God Michelle Duppong becomes one day. Her love for our Eucharistic Lord has left fingerprints on the lives of all she knew, from campuses to farmhouses. We can be confident her legacy of joy will live on because of its eternally timeless roots: the Eucharist is the ultimate source of her joy, and ours as well!
Servant of God Michelle Duppong, pray for us!
Help the children and youth in your life grow closer to Jesus in the Eucharist through the witness of Michelle Duppong today! Download Katie Bogner’s children’s activities—perfect for home, classroom, and parish settings!
