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Anne-Therese Guérin was born on October 2, 1798, in Étables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. Her father, Laurent Guerin, was a naval officer under Napoleon Bonaparte, and her mother, Isabelle Lefevre Guerin, was a homemaker. Though four children were born into the family, the two boys died as children, leaving only Anne-Therese and her younger sister Marie-Jeanne to live into adulthood.
When she was thirteen, bandits robbed and killed Anne-Therese’s father as he was making his way home to visit his family. Isabelle’s grief was overwhelming. She had already lost two sons, and now she lost her husband. For the next several years, Isabelle’s depression was so severe, that she was unable to adequately function as a mother and homemaker. So, Anne-Therese took over many of her mother’s former tasks, caring for not only for her younger sister, but also for her mother, the house, and the family’s garden.
When her younger sister was old enough to care for herself and her mother, Anne-Therese made money for the family by sewing and working in a factory. Anne-Therese’s experiences running a family and bringing in money to support them would one day serve her and her religious community quite well.
When she was twenty, Anne-Therese asked her mother’s permission to join a religious order, but her mother was still too depressed to say yes. However, five years later, Isabelle gave her blessing.
On August 18, 1823, Anne-Therese entered the Sisters of Province of Ruillé-sur-Loir and given the name Sister Saint Théodore. She made her first vows on September 8, 1825, and her optional final vows on September 5, 1831. (Biographers, including the Holy See, often call her Theodora instead of Theodore to avoid gender confusion.)
In her early years as a religious sister, Sr. Theodora taught school. She also, however, had an interest in helping the sick. In fact, she studied medicines and basic health concepts from a physician. This love of medicines would show up in her later life as a missionary in the United States where she founded pharmacies as well as schools and orphanages.
On July 15, 1840, Sr. Theodore led five other members of her order to become foreign missionaries in the United States. After a long ocean journey from France, the sisters arrived on October 22, 1840, in the remote village of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in the State of Indiana. This was part of what was then known as the Diocese of Vincennes, and this is where they made their missionary headquarters.
Mother Theodore and her companions immediately got to work. In July of 1841, less than a year after arriving in Indiana, they established an academy for young women. This academy, today known as Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College, prepares men and women in many fields on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels.
Despite a wide variety of problems getting settled, the sisters did not allow obstacles to get in their way of accomplishing their goals. Soon, Mother Theodore and the other Sisters established Catholic schools in many towns in Indiana and a few in Illinois. The group also opened orphanages for both boys and girls, and Mother Theodore founded pharmacies for the poor.
Although Mother Theodore and her group of Sisters started out as members of the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir, on October 22, 1840, Mother Theodore and her group founded a new religious order known as the Sisters of Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods.
Mother Theodore died on May 14, 1856, at the motherhouse which she had founded in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana.
Mother Theodore was canonized on October 15, 2006. Saint Theodore Guérin’s feast day is October 3. She is a patron saint of the State of Indiana, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana, and the city of Indianapolis.
