{"id":943,"date":"2021-10-03T05:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T05:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=943"},"modified":"2025-09-29T05:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:04:08","slug":"an-interesting-saint-theodora-guerin-missionary-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=943","title":{"rendered":"An interesting Saint: Theodora Guerin, missionary to America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Theodora<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
"Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the saints we must live like them."<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2014 St. Th\u00e9odore Gu\u00e9rin<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note that her name is Theodore Guerin but she was designated St. Theodora – not sure why.<\/span> Below I've put the miracles attributed to her<\/a>, leading to her canonization. <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

She was only recently canonized – in 2006 by Pope Benedict. Today is her feast day.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

St. Theodore Guerin (1798\u20131856), also known as St. Theodora, was born in Etables, France, towards the end of the French Revolution. She was a pious child who loved prayer and who knew her vocation was to be a nun. However, she was delayed in following this path after the murder of her father when she was 15, which, in addition to the previous death of two of her siblings, sent her mother into a deep depression. St. Theodore took on the household tasks and the care of her mother and her remaining sister.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, when she was 25, her mother gave her consent, and Theodore left home to enter the religous life. She joined the Sisters of Providence who served God by educating children and caring for the poor, the sick, and the dying. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1840 she was asked to lead a band of missionary sisters and establish her order in the United States of America, specifically to serve the pioneers in Indiana. Even though her health was fragile, she crossed the Atlantic and then traveled by steamboat and stagecoach until she reached the wilderness mission of St. Mary of the Woods, which consisted only of a tiny log chapel. She and her five sisters endured the extreme hardships common to life on the frontier. Less than a year after arriving she opened an academy which became the first Catholic women's Liberal Arts college in the United States, still active today, called St. Mary of the Woods College. <\/span><\/p>\n

St. Theodore also established numerous schools, pharmacies, and orphanages throughout the state of Indiana. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonized in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI. Her feast day is October 3rd.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miracles attributed to Guerin – from wikipedia
<\/span><\/h3>\n

The first miracle attributed to Gu\u00e9rin is said to have occurred in 1908. Before going to bed on 30 October, Sister of Providence Mary Theodosia Mug prayed at Gu\u00e9rin's crypt in the Church of the Immaculate Conception<\/a> on the motherhouse grounds at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods for another sister who was ill. However, Mug herself suffered from damaged nerves in both arms and her right hand, breast cancer<\/a>, and an abdominal tumor. When she awoke the next day, Sister Mary Theodosia was able to move her arms without pain, and the lump in her abdomen had disappeared. The cancer never returned. Sister Mary Theodosia died of old age in 1943 at the age of eighty-two.[1]<\/a><\/sup>[40]<\/a><\/sup>[41]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The second of the miracles attributed to Gu\u00e9rin involves Phil McCord of Terre Haute, Indiana<\/a>, and occurred in January 2001.[42]<\/a><\/sup> McCord, who had worked in facilities management for the Sisters of Providence<\/a>, stopped by the Church of the Immaculate Conception and was drawn in by music from the pipe organ<\/a>. After entering the church, McCord felt compelled to pray to Gu\u00e9rin, asking for strength to undergo surgery, a cornea transplant for his right eye to improve his failing eyesight[43]<\/a><\/sup> (Previous eye surgeries did not fully restore his eyesight, which had deteriorated to a legally-blind status of 20-800 in one eye and 20-1000 in the other.) McCord returned to his home, and when he awoke the next morning, his vision, although still blurry, had improved. A follow-up visit with his eye doctor confirmed that McCord no longer needed the cornea transplant. With subsequent laser treatment, McCord's eyesight returned perfect, 20-20 vision. Ophthalmologists<\/a> and others investigating the case could find no medical explanation for the change in his condition. In 2006 the Catholic cardinals at the Vatican reviewed and approved the findings in the case and declared the event a miracle, paving the way for the final step in Gu\u00e9rin's canonization process.[42]<\/a><\/sup>[44]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the saints we must live like them." \u2014 St. Th\u00e9odore Gu\u00e9rin Note that her name is Theodore Guerin but she was designated St. Theodora – not sure why. Below I've put the miracles attributed to her, leading to her canonization. She was only recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5470,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions\/5470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}