Théodore Guérin (born Anne Thérèse Guérin; ; 2 October 1798 – 14 May 1856) was a French-American Catholic religious sister who founded the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, based in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana.
Born and raised in France, Guérin immigrated to the United States in 1840, where she became known for her advancement of education, especially in Indiana and in eastern Illinois. She founded numerous schools, including Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Guérin is known for her care of the orphaned, the sick, and the poor of the Diocese of Vincennes.
Guérin was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998, and she was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. Mother Guérin's feast day is 3 October, although some calendars list it in the Roman Martyrology as 14 May, the date of her death.
Early life and education Anne-Thérèse Guérin was born on 2 October 1798, in the village of Étables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France, to Laurent Guérin, an officer in the French Navy under Napoleon Bonaparte, and Isabelle (Lefèvre) Guérin. Anne-Thérèse was born near the end of the French Revolution, which led to the Reign of Terror and the establishment of the French First Republic. This period of significant change also caused a crisis within French Catholicism, when schools and churches were closed, and many Catholic priests chose exile over death from the guillotine.
Laurent and Isabelle Guérin had four children, two sons (Jean-Laurent and Laurent-Marie) and two daughters; however, only Anne-Thérèse and her younger sister, Marie-Jeanne, survived to adulthood. The Guérin sisters were mostly educated at home by their mother and later by a relative who lived with the family.
Anne-Thérèse knew from an early age that she would devote her life to serving God. At the age of ten, when she was allowed to take her First Communion two years earlier than the custom of the time, she confided to the priest in Etables that she wished to enter a religious community when she was older.Young, p. 17.
When Guérin was fifteen, tragedy struck the family. Bandits robbed and killed her father as he was traveling home to visit his family. The grief proved to be too much for Isabelle Guérin, who already had lost two children, and she fell into a deep depression.Young, p. 18. The teenaged Anne-Thérèse accepted the responsibility of caring for her mother and sister, as well as the family's home and garden. When her sister became old enough to take on household tasks, Anne-Therese took sewing jobs and work in a factory to help support the family. Around the age of twenty, Guérin asked for her mother's blessing to join a religious order, but Isabelle was still unable to cope with her loss and refused. Five years later, Isabelle recognized the depth of Anne-Thérèse's devotion to God and permitted her to leave home to join a convent.
Entering religious life On 18 August 1823, Guérin entered the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir congregation and was given the religious name of Sister Saint Théodore.Krouse, Alex. "The Life and Legacy of St. Mother Theodore Guerin", Today's Catholic, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, March 20, 2024 She professed first vows 8 September 1825, and perpetual vows, which at the time were optional, on 5 September 1831.
Sister Saint Théodore spent her early career as an educator, beginning as a teacher at Preuilly-sur-Claise in central France. In 1826, she began serving as a teacher and superior at the Saint Aubin parish school in Rennes before her transfer to a school at Soulaines in the Diocese of Angers. She began to study medicine and remedies under a local doctor. She ministered to the needs of the area's sick and poor and received a medal for her teaching from the inspector for the Academy of Angers. While working in France, Sister Saint Théodore became seriously ill, most likely with smallpox. Although she recovered, the illness damaged her digestive system. As a result, Sister Saint Théodore could only eat a simple, bland diet for the rest of her life.Young, p. 20.
Emigration from France to Indiana In 1839, the Most Reverend Simon William Gabriel Bruté, the first bishop of the vast Diocese of Vincennes in Indiana, sent Vicar General Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière as a representative to their native France. Bishop Bruté searched for a religious congregation to come to the diocese to teach, provide spiritual instruction, and assist the sick. With only a few priests and a significant influx of Catholic immigrants of French, Irish, and German descent, the diocese needed additional help with its expanding ministry. Bishop Bruté knew the great assistance that a religious order could provide, having worked with Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton and her Sisters of Charity during the founding and early years of Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
In June 1839, while Hailandière was in France, Bishop Bruté died at Vincennes, Indiana; Hailandière, his successor, was consecrated a bishop of the diocese on 18 August 1839. One of Bishop Hailandière's first acts was to ask the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir to send a group of sisters to establish a ministry in Vincennes. Mother Mary, the superior general of the congregation, suggested Sister Saint Théodore for the task. Although Guérin was unsure of her ability to complete such a mission initially, she agreed after considerable discernment. Guérin later remarked that a sentence from the Rule of the congregation convinced her to answer the call to immigrate to the United States: "The Congregation being obliged to work with zeal for the sanctification of souls, the sisters will be disposed to go to whatsoever part of the world obedience calls them."Cit.
Founding a new order in Indiana On 15 July 1840, Sister Saint Théodore and five companions (Sister Olympiade Boyer, Sister Saint Vincent Ferrer Gagé, Sister Basilide Sénéschal, Sister Mary Xavier Lerée, and Sister Mary Liguori Tiercin) departed from France to sail to the United States. After a nearly two-month-long journey across the Atlantic Ocean, the six women traveled by steamboat and stagecoach to reach the dense forest of Indiana.Young, p. 27.Mitchell, pp. 34-37.
On 22 October 1840, Guérin and her companions arrived at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, a small, remote village in the wilderness in Vigo County, a few miles northwest of Terre Haute. For several months the sisters lived in a small frontier farmhouse with the Thralls family, along with a few postulants who had been waiting for them when they arrived. Only later did she learn that her French superiors had already decided the sisters in the United States should form a new religious congregation under her leadership."Saint Theodora Guérin", Franciscan Media Guérin became known as Mother Théodore.Young, p. 3.
Life work
Educator In July 1841, less than a year after they arrived in Indiana, and despite their meager resources, Mother Théodore and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods opened Saint Mary's Academy for young women. The academy was the forerunner of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Guérin had doubts that the new institution would succeed.Gugin and St. Clair, eds., p. 147. As she reflected in her journals, "It is astonishing that this remote solitude has been chosen for a novitiate and especially for an academy. All appearances are against it."Young, p. 49.
From the time of her arrival at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in July 1840 to January 1849, Mother Théodore worked with Catholic parishes to establish parish schools at several sites within the Diocese of Vincennes. In 1843, Guérin traveled to France on a fundraising trip. Bishop Hailandière established two schools in Indiana while Guérin was traveling in France and assigned them to the Sisters of Providence to operate: St. Peter-Montgomery (1843) and Saint Mary Female School-Vincennes (1843).Brown, pp. 263–266, 351–53.
Guérin personally directed the establishment of Saint Joseph School (1842) in Jasper;"Saint Mother Theodore Guerin", Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Saint Anne's Academy (1844) in Madison; Saint Augustine's (1846) in Fort Wayne; and Saint Vincent's Academy (1849) in Terre Haute, Indiana;Brown, pp. 559–67. as well as a school in Saint Francisville, Illinois. After her return to the United States from a fundraising trip to France, Guérin and the Sisters of Providence established six other schools in Indiana: two in Evansville, Saint Joseph's Academy (1853) and Assumption (1853); Saint Patrick's (1853) in North Madison;Brown, pp. 682–83. Saint Mary's (1853) at Fort Wayne;Brown, pp. 550–51. Saint Mary's (1854) at Lanesville; and Saint Bartholomew (1855) at Columbus.
In addition to establishing schools, Mother Théodore and the Sisters of Providence cooperated with Bishop John Stephen Bazin, Hailandière's successor, and Bishop Jacques-Maurice de Saint-Palais, Bazin's successor, in the establishment of two orphanages in Vincennes and free pharmacies at Vincennes and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.Young, pp. 99–101, and 107.
Business and congregation leader Guérin proved to be a skilled businesswoman and leader and a beloved general superior and spiritual leader of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She arranged to purchase a local farmhouse belonging to the Thralls family to serve as the congregation's first convent at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She oversaw the construction of a new Providence convent, which was formally dedicated on 7 August 1854. During the final years, Guerin was planning to build a new chapel at the convent in honor of the Blessed Virgin; however, she did not live to see it completed. The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana), her last major project, was completed in 1886.Young, pp. 51, 112–13, 118–19, and 126–27.
Despite numerous challenges and hardships during the congregation's early years, which included rebuilding after destructive fires and crop failures, prudent use of limited finances, and negotiating disagreements with Catholic leaders, Guérin remained devoted to her work and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods endured. By the time of her death in May 1856, the Sisters of Providence congregation in Indiana had grown from its original six sisters and four postulants to sixty-seven professed members, nine novices, and seven postulants.
Death
Guérin suffered from poor health for most of her adult life; however, her final illness began in March 1856. Guérin died on 14 May 1856 at the motherhouse at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, at fifty-seven.Young, pp. 120, 131.
The Catholic Telegraph and Advocate of Cincinnati, Ohio, published the following notice about Mother Théodore's death:
Guérin's remains were buried on 15 May 1856 in the Sisters of Providence Cemetery at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Her grave is marked with a Celtic cross that bears an inscription in Latin, translated as: "I sleep, but my heart watches over this house which I built." In 1907, Guérin's remains were moved to the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, although some of her remains are still buried at the original gravesite.Young, p. 141.
Veneration
Cause for sainthood