Search Results for label/history
Getting too many results? To search for an exact phrase, try putting multiple word phrases in quotation marks (such as "Saint Mother Theodore") to narrow your results.
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and corduroy roads
Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions traveled by stagecoach from Evansville to Vincennes, Ind. She writes about this uncomfortable trip: “ … we entered a thick forest where we saw the most singular kind of road that could be imagined. It was formed of logs, of trees that had been felled to clear the way and then were brought together as though to form a raft [corduroy]. Where some of these logs had become rotten, there were large holes. The...
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and the Ohio River
Process sketches for the statue of Mother Theodore by Teresa Clark. On Oct. 4, 1840, Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions saw the Ohio River for the last time. Mother Theodore reflects upon this: “Nothing troubled the charm and silence of this solitude. Making the most serious reflections on what we beheld, and on our present position, I said to myself: Thus does life also pass away, now calm, now agitated, but at last the end is attained.” Learn more...
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and mosquitoes
In Cincinnati, Mother Theodore Guerin and her companion-sisters found a blood-thirsty mob. She humorously writes: “We were far from supposing that, in the midst of the city where we had been so well received, we were to find a multitude of enemies athirst for the blood of the French. Until then we had not fought unto the shedding of blood, but this was a night of slaughter. I may say without boasting too much that several of my enemies perished...
Women’s History Month: English as a Second Language
“The Eighth American Saint” describes how the French sisters learned English after arriving at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in October of 1840: “Sister Theodore made ready to greet the new postulants as best she could in her few words of English. One of them was a French girl, Josephine Pardeillan, from Alsace; she had arrived earlier and had been living for some time with the Picquets at Sainte-Maire [Ill.]. Two others came from Vincennes — Frances Theriac and Genevieve Dukent. The fourth,...
Women’s History Month: Such speed!
“The Eighth American Saint” describes the railroad experience of Mother Theodore and her traveling companions: “They rode to Philadelphia on the South Amboy and Camden Railroad, opened only a few years before, the first rail route between New York and Philadelphia. The locomotive, the John Bull by name, was imported from England and was the first the sisters had ever seen. It was amazingly large and the coaches were too, seating a least forty people. The train went like lightning,...
Women’s History Month: God chooses the humble
Like any human, Saint Mother Theodore had her doubts about her upcoming mission to the New World. “The Eighth American Saint” describes her feelings: “What chiefly troubled her [Saint Mother Theodore] about this new mission was that its success or failure would depend on her. She was already forty-one years old, perhaps too old for pioneering; she had never been in really good health since she was a postulant. On the other hand, there were no ties of family to...
Women’s History Month: Thank goodness she said no!
Prior to her entrance into the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé, France, Anne-Thérèse Guerin (aka Saint Mother Theodore) did have a few suitors. “The Eighth American Saint” describes an encounter between Anne-Thérèse and one young man: “‘I feel I must do something for God,’ she said falteringly, ‘and for souls. It is the only way I can help.’ “‘What can woman do to help?’ he asked with an amused smile. ‘Anyway, leave it to others — and marry me.’ “To...
First chapel to be re-created at SMW
No worries if you’re not a history buff. The re-creation of the first log cabin chapel at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods will still be cool. Several years in the making, an authentic replica of the chapel visited by Saint Mother Theodore and her five companions when they arrived from France in 1840 is under construction. A Southern Indiana husband and wife donated a mid-1800s log cabin from their property, the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau provided support for construction, and volunteers...
Archives: keeper of the stories
...in France, sisters here in the United States and countless friends and donors. This issue of HOPE is dedicated to the keeper of the stories — the many women who have dedicated their lives to preserving the history of the Sisters of Providence. In this issue you’ll learn about the ways in which Archives collaborates with various entities across the state of Indiana. You’ll also learn about the work Sister Maureen Abbott is doing in writing the fourth volume of...
The Joy of Vatican II
...Nineteenth Century, O’Malley offers a sweeping survey of Church history and philosophy in the century before Vatican II. Although it may have seemed to those in the pews that Vatican II “came out of nowhere”, important work mediating dogma and “Liberalism” had been done by significant thinkers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the midst of many political crises. In response to Liberalism or modernity, the pope qua teacher, with the encyclical as the primary teaching tool, blossomed...
Young sisters today: Vatican II through education
...history of Vatican II and the changes that came of it, she has little recollection of it — except that Vatican II opened on her eighth birthday. She said the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the class is, “a great opportunity to reflect on what happened then. People born since then don’t have a clue what a watershed moment this was. It was a miracle that it happened. … The whole image of God changed.” Sister Janice, who is...
Taiwanese sister journeys home with the Sisters of Providence
...Theodore says, ‘… the crosses and trials give me confidence. … When we seek only God, he generally arranges things so that all good is found in him.’ “Living in community for more than 9 years, I experience saying yes to God daily. These years I have gotten to know the community’s charism, spirituality, history and life more deeply. My relationship with God and my sisters has grown in depth and love. I enjoy sharing faith, joys and challenges. I...