St. Theodore Guerin

St. Theodore Guerin was born Anne-Therese Guerin in Brittany, France in 1798. She was a very devout child who received her first Communion at an early age and expressed a desire to enter into a religious order. When she was 15, her father was murdered, and it fell to her to take care of her younger sister and mother, who suffered from severe depression. It was not until she was 25 years old that she was able to realize her dream of joining the Sisters of Providence, taking the name Theodore. In 1840, she was sent to start a new religious order in Indiana, a mission she at first doubted that she was the person to fulfill. She founded the new congregation, along with a school, at Saint Mary of the Woods, near Terre Haute, and the community grew from six sisters to nearly 100 at the time of her death in 1856. Mother Theodore was much beloved in her own time. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998 and canonized by Benedict XVI in 2006.

Questions for Reflection

  • Have you ever felt like your dreams were delayed? How can you find God in those moments of waiting?
  • Have you ever doubted that you can fulfill God’s call for your life? Has God ever completely surprised you by calling you to something new and beyond what you had dreamed for yourself?