The perseverance of St. Mother Theodore Guérin, canonized 20 years ago

(OSV News)—When St. Mother Theodore Guérin (1798-1856) was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, the pontiff almost understatedly summed up her life and holiness when he said, “With great trust in divine providence, [she] overcame many challenges and persevered in the work that the Lord had called her to do.” Indeed, St. Mother Theodore Guérin’s life was full of challenges, and the way she responded to them shows how she lived as a saint.

Oct. 15 marks the 20th anniversary of this remarkable woman’s canonization. Her feast day is celebrated on Oct. 3.

Anne-Thérèse Guérin was born in France’s Brittany region in 1798. Early on, she decided to dedicate her life to God, telling the priest who administered her first Communion that she planned to be a nun. While her father’s naval work often kept him from the family home, her mother’s influence was strong and loving.

After her father’s murder, the young Anne-Thérèse cared for her mother and sister. She lived a simple holiness knowing, “We are not called upon to do all the good possible, but only that which we can do.”

Entering the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loire in 1823 at nearly 25 years old, Anne-Thérèse soon dedicated herself to educating and caring for the poor. She was given a fitting new name, Sister Theodore, which is Greek for “gift of God.” At the age of 42, her reliance on God’s providence soon became even more important when she accepted an assignment to the Indiana frontier.

Bishop Celestin de la Hailandière of Vincennes, Ind., asked the superior of St. Mother Theodore’s order to send sisters as teaching missionaries to his diocese, which then encompassed the entire state of Indiana and the eastern third of Illinois, including then the small town of Chicago.

Her superior knew of only one sister who could lead the mission, and the humble St. Mother Theodore was troubled to learn she was chosen for the task. After all, she long suffered from the effects of a disease-curing medication that rendered her tolerant of only an extremely limited diet. She accepted the mission only after a great deal of prayer with a heart dependent on God’s will, fearing that if she didn’t go, no one would.

In 1840, travelling with five other sisters, St. Mother Theodore arrived in Indiana. After a meeting with the bishop, they arrived in the village of St. Mary-of-the-Woods just west of Terre Haute, first coming to a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament. “We found waiting for us in a poor log cabin our God, our ALL,” St. Mother Theodore wrote in her journal.

First lodging in the home of a pioneer family, the sisters got right to work building the infrastructure making it possible to open a school within a year. The school still exists today as Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Filled with missionary zeal, St. Mother Theodore would establish nearly a dozen schools and two orphanages throughout Indiana and Illinois.

She experienced almost every imaginable hardship on the Indiana frontier: anti-Catholicism, prejudice against women, misunderstandings, fire, hunger and illness. The woman of perseverance accepted it all in providence, writing, “Does it matter what becomes of us, provided God’s will be accomplished?”

One of St. Mother Theodore’s most notable challenges in Indiana was the difficulties she encountered with Bishop de la Hailandière. Unable to work well with the sisters, the bishop sought more and more control of them. St. Mother Theodore was eventually forced to return to France for advice from her superior, and it was decided that she should establish a new order back in Indiana.

In her absence, the bishop made matters worse. On her return, the bishop even locked St. Mother Theodore in a room hoping to obtain her resignation. He created further problems for her and the wider community until he resigned in 1847.

In those years of pain and suffering, St. Mother Theodore experienced her share in the cross. Ever reliant on God’s providence, she proved strong in leadership and holiness, and urged her sisters, “Put yourself gently into the hands of providence.”

St. Mother Theodore Guérin died at age 57 in 1856 at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, the order she founded. She knew what it was to live as a saint, and she teaches us about our call to the same: “What have we to do in order to be saints? Nothing extraordinary; nothing more than what we do every day. Only do it for his love.” †