Published: May 08, 2008 09:30 pm            

Hundreds set to attend Guerin statue dedication

ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS — Hundreds of pilgrims are expected to join the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods for the dedication of a statue honoring St. Mother Theodore Guerin on Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

St. Mother Theodore is the foundress of the Sisters of Providence. She was canonized Oct. 15, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI as only the eighth American saint and the first from Indiana.

Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal representative to the United States, will celebrate Eucharistic Liturgy at 2 p.m. Saturday. It is open to the public. After the Liturgy, pilgrims will walk outside to Mary’s Garden for the blessing and dedication of the statue. A reception follows at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, a short drive from the garden. The Indiana Society of Washington, D.C., is hosting the reception.

The statue was sculpted in clay by Terre Haute artist Teresa Clark. A mold then was made and sent to Ohio, where carver Nicholas Fairplay created the final version in Indiana limestone.

St. Mother Theodore came to the United States from France in 1840 to establish a congregation of women religious in a dense forest adjacent to a remote community known as St. Mary-of-the-Woods, near Terre Haute. She was born Anne-Thérèse Guérin, Oct. 2, 1798, in the village of Etables in Brittany, France. She died at St. Mary-of-the-Woods in 1856. Her remains are entombed in a shrine inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception at the motherhouse.

In her new homeland, she and five companion sisters who traveled from France with her started right away on their mission and opened an academy for girls less than nine months after their arrival. That academy is now known as St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, the oldest Catholic liberal arts college for women in the United States.

With Mother Theodore’s leadership and initiative, the congregation established schools throughout Indiana before expanding into Illinois, Massachusetts and California. Sisters now serve in 20 states, Taiwan and China.

        

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