Saint of the Day - Saint Theodore Guerin
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Thursday, October 3, 2019St. Theodore Guerin, at the age of 15, cared for her severely depressed mother and surviving sister after the murder of her father and the loss of her two sisters. Finally though, when she was 25, her mother gave her consent, and Theodore left home to enter the religous life. She joined the Sisters of Providence who served God by educating children and caring for the poor, the sick, and the dying. In 1840 she was asked to lead a band of missionary sisters and establish her order in the United States of America, specifically to serve the pioneers in Indiana. Even though her health was fragile, she crossed the Atlantic and then traveled by steamboat and stagecoach until she reached the wilderness mission of St. Mary of the Woods, which consisted only of a tiny log chapel. She and her five sisters endured the extreme hardships common to life on the frontier. Less than a year after arriving she opened an academy which became the first Catholic women's Liberal Arts college in the United States, still active today, called St. Mary of the Woods College. For more information about St. Theodore Guerin please see https://www.catholiccompany.com/morning-offering/2019-10-03/