Saint Théodore Guérin

Life story

Anne-Thérèse Guérin was born on 2 October 1798 at Étables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. She grew up in the unsettled years after the Revolution and was early accustomed to hardship and to helping run a household. In 1823 she entered the Sisters of Providence at Ruillé-sur-Loir and took the religious name Théodore. For many years afterwards she taught and directed schools of the congregation in western France.

In the late 1830s Bishop Simon Bruté of Vincennes, in Indiana in the United States, asked the congregation to send sisters to teach the children of a thinly settled territory. Mother Théodore was chosen to lead the mission. On 15 July 1840 she left France with five companions, and the group reached Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, in forested country, on 22 October 1840. Their first lodgings were very modest, and the community struggled with material shortages for years.

There she established the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in 1840 and opened an academy for young women, which later grew into a college. Under her direction the sisters also founded a number of small schools in other towns of Indiana and Illinois, and cared for the poor and the sick. She died at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on 14 May 1856, aged fifty-seven.

She was beatified by John Paul II on 25 October 1998 and canonised by Benedict XVI on 15 October 2006. Her feast is kept on 3 October, though some calendars use 14 May, the day of her death. The Sisters of Providence continue to work in education and charity in several countries today.

Works and witness

• Entered the Sisters of Providence at Ruillé-sur-Loir in 1823
• Left France on 15 July 1840 with five companions bound for Indiana
• Founded the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in 1840
• Opened an academy for young women and several small frontier schools
• Canonised on 15 October 2006

Patron of

State of Indiana (USA)

Saints from the same country

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Saint Katharine Drexel, Blessed Solanus Casey

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods – historical archives

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.