October 3–St. Mother Theodore Guerin, Religious

 

Official portrait of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin released by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in their press kit as a promotional image.

The American frontier was served by many religious communities of women to educate and serve both Catholic immigrants and Indigenous Americans. These included saints such as St. Katherine Drexel, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, and today’s saint, St. Mother Theodore Guérin. Born in France in 1798, she expressed a desire to become a religious sister at an early age. She entered religious life in 1825 and became a teacher and administrator at schools in France. In 1839 the bishop of Vincennes, Indiana requested help from women religious in France to send missionaries to help with the influx of Catholic immigrants. Sr. Theodore was recommended and accepted the call under the inspiration of the Rule of the congregation: "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." She then founded a new order in Indiana establishing a women’s academy which became a college, parish schools and other schools, orphanages, and free pharmacies. She died in 1856 after an adulthood of poor health. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods quote St. Mother Theodore: “What have we to do in order to be saints? Nothing extraordinary; nothing more than what we do every day. Only do it for [God’s] love…” They write about her dependence on God’s Providence: “She’s a saint now, but during her life she was a real person who dealt with real problems. She didn’t want to take on the difficult mission of leaving France to start a congregation in the frontier of Indiana. However, her trust in Providence — the protective care of God — led her to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods where she accomplished amazing things.” St. Mother Theodore Guerin, pray for us!

November 18--St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, Religious and Missionary

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“Go West, middle-aged woman.” That is where today’s saint, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, went to fulfill her calling in America, teaching among the pioneers and Native Americans of the American frontier of Missouri and Kansas.

Born in 1769, St. Rose started out as a nun in a French convent in the late 18th century. During the French Revolution, her convent closed, and she took it upon herself to care for the poor and sick, opened a school for street children, and helped priests. After that she joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, where she became a superior and a supervisor of the novitiate. But she still longed to go to America to work among the Native Americans. She finally got the chance when she was 49. She and four other sisters sailed to New Orleans and up the Mississippi to St. Louis, where she started the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi in St. Charles, Missouri. She also founded the first Catholic Native American school. At the age of 72, retired and in poor health, she went to a new mission in Sugar Creek, Kansas, about 50 miles south of Kansas City and worked among the Potawatomi. She could not teach, but prayed while others taught. She was named “Woman-Who-Prays-Always.” She died in 1852 at the age of 83 and canonized in 1988.

What does it take to be a pioneer? It doesn’t mean “Go West” in location, but rather “Go West” in love; go to those who need the most help, the poor, the outcast, the young, the hurting, the homeless. Expect hardship and suffering, but do so to offer it up in love for the grace of God to be showered on those whom we serve, as well as ourselves.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DuchesneRSCJ.jpg