By Nathan Folz
Home parish: Good Shepherd Parish, Evansville
Education: St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, Class of 2027
Saint: St. Mother Theodore Guerin
Editor’s Note: This year, Diocesan seminarians focused their annual seminarian profiles on a saint or someone on the road to sainthood who gives them hope in honor of the Jubilee Year of Hope.
“Lean with all your weight on Providence, and you will find yourself well supported.” Mother Theodore Guerin’s whole life can be summed up in these few words of advice, which she had written to one of her fellow Sisters of Providence. Mother Theodore, Indiana’s first and only saint, lived her life constantly leaning on God. Whether she was dealing with the loss of family members, leaving France to start life as a missionary in the rugged Indiana wilderness or struggling to found a new religious order, she put all her hope in God.
While I often saw pictures of Mother Theodore growing up (her Sisters of Providence had been the original teachers at both my grade school and high school), it wasn’t until recently that I learned more about her life. The more I have come to know her, the more I’ve realized how much I need her message of hope in my own life.
Her own example of trusting in God’s love even in the most difficult times has been an inspiration to me to do the same. Particularly as I have moved along in my vocational discernment and seminary formation — which has included its own share of difficult times — Mother Theodore’s example has been a source of hope for me.
But Mother Theodore’s example is one that can give all of us hope. She lived and worked in the same places we do — Evansville, Jasper and Vincennes. If she can become a saint in southern
Indiana, then there’s no reason we can’t, too. And her example of holiness is one that we can all follow. All we have to do — in every situation — is lean with all our weight on Providence.