St. Theodore Guerin (Oct. 2, 1798 to May 14, 1856)

  Where I live, people are always trying to be a part of things that seem trendy, like performing reiki on vegetables, studying permaculture, calling themselves “poets,” or insulting the Roman Catholic Church. And, yet, these same people have probably never heard of something I find to be interesting and hip: spiritual ecology. It combines religion, spirituality, and the environment.

  St. Francis of Assisi is the first person that comes to my mind when I think of mixing the environment with religion, but St. Theodore Guerin deserves recognition as well as the foundress of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana in 1840.

  St. Theodore Guerin was born in Etables-sur-mer, France on Oct. 2, 1798. Along with five other nuns she settled in Vincennes, Indiana on Oct. 22, 1840. She helped  Establish the Academy of Saint Mary-of-the Woods, the following summer in Terre Haute. It is the first Catholic women’s liberal arts college in the United States.
  White Violet Center of Eco-Justice is a ministry of the Sisters of Providence.
  St. Theodore Guerin founded numerous schools throughout Indiana and pharmacies that dispensed free medicine to the needy.  She died in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on May 14, 1856. Canonized: 2006. Her feast day is Oct. 3.