Search Results for label/oral history
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In their own words: Sister Diane Ris
...way for her. It was such a beautiful gesture that Sister Ann Margaret had chosen Sister Nancy and me to be with her because that’s a piece of history of the Congregation there with the three of us to be able to take Mother Theodore again to the universal Church. What effect do you think the canonization of Mother Theodore will have inside and outside the Congregation? I think this will help people delve deeper into her life and the...
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and the church
After receiving the Blessed Sacrament upon her arrival at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Mother Theodore Guerin examined the church a little more closely. This is what she writes about it: “No tabernacle, no altar, for can the name of altar be given to three planks forming a table forty inches long, supported by two stakes driven into the ground? — that is all, for there are no altar cards, no stand for the missal, in fine, nothing but what I have mentioned....
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and the Blessed Sacrament
Once Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions were safely on land at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., the sisters wanted to visit the Blessed Sacrament. The following is what Mother Theodore writes about this experience: “We had agreed among ourselves that our first visit would be made to the Blessed Sacrament, and that we would not speak to anyone before having satisfied this longing of our hearts. The priest preceded us and we followed in silence to the church. The Church! I...
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and fear
The short journey from Terre Haute to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., took forever as Mother Theodore and her sister-companions were forced to wait several hours for a ferry to cross the Wabash River. Once across the Wabash, Mother Theodore and her traveling companions faced a dangerous stagecoach ride. Mother Theodore writes: “I may say, however, that I was not at all alarmed. When one has nothing more to lose, the heart is inaccessible to fear. The water poured in on us....
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and Terre Haute
Arriving in Terre Haute, Ind., the afternoon of Oct. 21, 1840, Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions spent the night in the city. She writes about Terre Haute: “Like all American cities it [Terre Haute] is laid out on a large scale; in some places the houses are a gunshot from each other. We passed the night there in a hotel, and the next day heard Mass in a small Catholic church [St. Joseph’s] which has just been built. It...
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and smoking
Traveling by stagecoach from Vincennes to Terre Haute, Ind., was another arduous and dangerous leg of Mother Theodore Guerin’s journey to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. Rain made matters even worse. When the stagecoach overturned and the driver was unable to upright the vehicle, assistance was sought from a man who lived in nearby cabin. Mother Theodore and her sister-companions stayed with the woman of the house as the men turned their attention to the stagecoach. Mother Theodore writes: “The man of...
Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and Vincennes
Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions stayed with the Sisters of Charity while in Vincennes, Ind. She writes about Vincennes: “At Vincennes, especially, one might think she was in Noah’s ark. The confused noise is deafening. The two pianos that the Sisters [of Charity] have for twelve pupils, and which are going from the beginning of the day to tend, add to the confusion. … Well, such is the village of Vincennes.” To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin,...
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,...