"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."
What the world was like
In 1799 a French army captain stationed in Egypt discovered the Rosetta Stone, which was carved in 196 BC. By comparing the three forms of writing carved on the stone, scholars were able to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time. In 1818 a twenty-one-year-old Englishwoman named Mary Shelley published a science-fiction novel called Frankenstein. In 1822 an English couple named Mary Ann and Gideon Mantell discovered the first fossil ever to be recognized as a dinosaur. They called it an iguanadon. In the 1840s crops failed in many places in Europe, and Ireland was especially hard hit. During the Great Irish Famine of 1846-1848 thousands of starving Irish men, women, and children left Ireland to go to America. In 1848 gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, in California, and the great California Gold Rush began. In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1856 James Buchanan was elected the fifteenth President of the United States.
Who she was
Saint Theodore Guerin was born in a village in Northern France. Her parents christened her Anne-Thérèse. Even as a young child Anne-Thérèse wanted to be close to God. When she was ten years old, she was allowed to receive her First Holy Communion. On that day she told the priest that someday she wanted to become a religious sister, to dedicate her life to God.
When Anne-Thérèse was fifteen years old, her father was killed. For almost ten years after her father's death, Anne-Thérèse put aside her wish to become a religious sister. Instead, she stayed at home to care for her mother and sister. Then, in 1823, when Anne-Thérèse was almost twenty-five years old, she entered the Sisters of Providence. She took as her religious name Sister Saint Theodore. As a Sister of Providence she taught at schools in several French cities. She also studied medicine with a doctor in the city of Soulaines to help her learn to care for the sick.
In 1839 the Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, asked the Sisters of Providence to send missionary sisters to serve in his diocese in the United States. In 1840 Sister Theodore Guerin and five other sisters traveled to Indiana. There, in 1841, "in the midst of the forest," they opened a school for girls called the Academy of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. As superior of the mission, Sister Saint Theodore was now Mother Theodore.
In the years that followed, Mother Theodore opened other schools in Indiana and Illinois. She also established orphanages and opened pharmacies where the poor could receive medicines at no cost. Today the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods serve in twenty states, the Washington D.C., Taiwan, and China.
In 1998 Pope John Paul II declared Mother Theodore Guerin Blessed. He called her "a perfect blend of humanness and holiness." In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI declared her a saint.
What this saint means to us
Mother Theodore advised her sisters to do their everyday tasks for God's love. That, she said, was the way to sainthood. We can remember her advice as we live our own lives.
