St. Mother Theodore Guerin

  Posted on November 10, 2020  by admin  No comments

Born: 2 October 1798 at Etables-sur-Mer, Brittany, France as Anne-Thérèse Guérin 

Died: 14 May 1856 at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, USA, of natural causes, buried at Church of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods 

Canonized: 15 October 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI 

Patronage: Lafayette, Indiana

Feast day: October 3

Daughter of Laurent and Isabelle Guérin. Joined the Sisters of Providence at Ruillé-sur-Loir, France on 18 August 1823, taking the name Sister Saint Theodore, and making her final vows on 5 September 1831. Taught in Rennes and Soulaines, France. Sent with five other sisters (Sister Olympiade Boyer, Sister Saint Vincent Ferrer Gagé, Sister Basilide Sénéschal, Sister Mary Xavier Lerée and Sister Mary Liguori Tiercin) to the diocese of Vincennes, Indiana, USA on 22 October 1840. They established the Academy of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on 4 July 1841 at Terre Haute, Indiana, the first Catholic women’s liberal-arts college in the United States. She established schools at Jasper, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Village, Vincennes, Montgomery, Madison, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, Evansville, North Madison, Lanesville and Columbus, all in Indiana, and Saint Francisville in Illinois. Founded an orphanage for girls and one for boys in Vincennes, Indiana. Opened pharmacies where medicines were dispensed free to the poor at Vincennes and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Oversaw construction of a motherhouse for the Sisters of Providence and several additions to the Academy.