Mother Théodore Guérin

          Anne Thérèse Guérin was born in a village on the French seashore in 1798, to a French naval officer under Napoleon named Laurent Guérin and his wife Isabelle. It was a difficult time to be a Catholic in France - with the Reign of Terror and its Anti-Catholicism - but the Guérins were a faith-filled family. Anne-Thérèse was one of four children of the couple. Her father was often away due to his naval service, so Anne-Thérèse was raised mostly by her mother. Isabelle valued education and made sure to instruct Anne-Thérèse and her siblings. 

          Anne-Thérèse knew suffering and tragedy from an early age. When she was two years old, her older brother died in a house fire. When Anne-Thérèse turned 15, her younger brother also died from a fire. Later that same year, her father Laurent was robbed and murdered on his way home to his family. The cumulative toll of these events caused Isabelle to go into an intense depression.  The fifteen year-old Anne-Thérèse had to assume the duties of the head of a household, taking care of her mother and younger sister, and later working various jobs to support her family. She took on these duties despite having long wanted to pursue a religious vocation.  At 20, she asked her mother for permission to enter the Sisters of Providence. Isabelle refused.  It took another five years for Anne-Thérèse's mother to give her blessing. 

          On August 18, 1823, Anne-Thérèse entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Providence, an order that served as teachers and also cared for the sick and poor. She took the religious name of Sister St. Théodore.   During her novitiate, Sister St. Théodore was plagued with health issues (some speculate small pox).  Treatment she was given permanently damaged her digestive tract such that, from then on, she was never able to eat significant amounts or more than a bland diet.  Three times in her life the situation reached a point where she was given the last Sacraments out of fear she was near death.  But Sister St. Théodore persevered.  

          Six months into her formation she was sent to begin teaching.  In 1826, she was sent to Rennes, France to work at a school the sisters ran.  Before Sister St. Théodore’s arrival, the school was considered a failure.  The French Revolution had resulted in much poverty in the area and a disrespect of religion.  But Sister St. Théodore succeeded at converting the hearts of the young girls in the school, choosing to treat them with positivity.  At one point she broke the switch kept at the school, declaring it not needed and that she would reward the girls for working hard and behaving well.  The course of the school changed, and nine years later the community of Rennes had changed through the change Sister St. Théodore achieved in the school.

          Next, Sister St. Théodore was sent to a mission in Soulaines. In addition to teaching, there she learned nursing and medicine skills that would serve her well in the next phase of her vocation and the missionary call to the United States. Simon Bruté, the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes and another individual featured on American Saints and Causes, invited the Sisters of Providence to come to Indiana to help serve all the Catholic immigrants from Europe that were coming to the diocese. Bruté had known Elizabeth Ann Seton and her sisters in Maryland when he was an instructor at Mount Saint Mary’s and likely hoped to see similar fruits from the presence of the Sisters of Providence. Bruté did not live to see Sister St. Théodore arrive in Indiana, but his successor, Bishop Hailandière, who Bruté had sent to France to make the invitation to the sisters, carried forward with the request. The sisters accepted. Sister St. Théodore did not volunteer for the mission, however, thinking her health was too frail for the journey and pioneer life. But the sister who was to lead the mission insisted Sister St. Théodore was the only one who could lead them and insisted she join them. After some prayer, Sister St. Théodore agreed.

          On July 12, 1840, now Mother Théodore and five others left France for America.  The journey across the Atlantic Ocean took them two months and then another to reach Indiana.  The sisters did not anticipate how challenging pioneer life was going to be.  Describing their arrival, Guérin wrote, “We continued to advance into the thick woods till suddenly Father Buteux stopped the carriage and said, ‘Come down, Sisters, we have arrived.’  What was our astonishment to find ourselves still in the midst of the forest, no village, not even a house in sight.”  For the first month the sisters, along with 4 American postulants that met them on arrival, lived with the Thralls family in their two-room farmhouse.  Mother Théodore purchased the drafty house and it served as their motherhouse for 13 years.  To help provide financial support for the new community, Mother Théodore opened an academy for young women, which became Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, the oldest Catholic college in Indiana.  The sisters also helped establish numerous schools at Catholic parishes throughout Indiana.  The sisters also built several orphanages and pharmacies.          

          Life in the pioneer wilderness was tough, even more so as a Catholic woman exercising leadership. People were not used to women conducting business affairs. Many of the priests and bishops, trained in Europe, brought attitudes that thought communities of religious sisters should be under their complete control. While respectful of their office, Mother Guérin defended the appropriate autonomy of her sisters, instead of a style of administration that would make them dependent on a priest’s approval for all their actions. The sometimes clash of wills this created at one point led to Bishop Hailandière lock Mother Guérin in a room, remove her from leadership of the Sisters of Providence and even excommunicate her.  The situation was resolved, and Mother Guérin was restored to leadership, when the pope accepted Bishop Hailandière’s resignation.

          Mother Théodore Guérin died on May 14, 1856, at the age of 57.

          Saint Théodore Guérin is considered one of the patron saints of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the Diocese of Lafayette. She is the first saint from Indiana. The Shrine of Saint Mother Théodore Guérin is located in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Pilgrims can pray before her remains which are entombed in a chapel in the shrine, as well as tour an exhibit of artifacts, relics, and information about Saint Guérin’s life.

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