Mother Theodore Guerin

Mother Theodore Guerin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence in the United States, was born in Estables, France, in 1798. In 1823, at the age of 25, she entered the congregation at Ruille-sur-Loire in the diocese of LeMans.

It was here that Father Jaques Dujarie had founded the order in 1806 to provide a school in his parish in the hopes of reestablishing the faith of his parishioners which was badly shaken by the revolutionist. In 1840 at the request of the bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, who had heard of her work in France, she consented to lead a group of six sisters to America.

Mother Theodore established a motherhouse and novitiate at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, as well as schools and orphanages throughout the diocese. Over the course of the next fifteen years, years of poverty, labor, sickness, and trials of all kinds, her courage never diminished and her confidence in the providence of God never wavered. Mother Theodore distiguished herself in the formation of religious teachers, and in drawing up a program of education remarkable for its anticipation of future needs. She instilled in her congregation a tradition of adapting the talents and resources of her sisters to fit the evolving work of the kingdom. She was beautified by Pope John Paul II in 1997. Her canonization is now pending.

In the fall of 1911 when the Passionists of Immaculate Conception earnestly requested the help of the Sister of Providence of Indiana, Mother Mary Cleophas Foley promised two sisters to continue the work begun by parisioner Julia Mahoney in 1910. From the first day Sisters Mary Annunciata and Mary Rosa opened the school, the record notes, the children and their parents manifested their appreciation of the Sisters and cooperated in every way. On June 19, 1912, the first graduating class of five boys and four girls proudly received the eighth-grade graduation certificates.

Now, ninety graduating classes later, Immaculate Conception School still provides our children with an effective education and a sound religious background. Leadership as principal was based on the school's first lay person, Bernadette Felicione, in 1994.