Bloomington Mass honors St. Theodora

Father William Stumpf, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington, and Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein recite the end of the eucharistic prayer at a special Mass on April 30 in honor of

St. Theodora Guérin. Priests from the Bloomington Deanery concelebrated the Mass.

By Mike Krokos

BLOOMINGTON—Janis Dopp and St. Theodora Guérin go way back.

Sort of.

As a young girl attending St. Emeric School in the Diocese of Gary, Ind., in the late 1950s, Dopp remembers hearing of then Mother Theodore Guérin.

One of Dopp’s teachers, a Daughter of Divine Charity sister, gave her a holy card with a third-class relic of Mother Theodore.

Although she can’t remember the reason the gift was given, Dopp said getting the card was special.

“I put it in my prayer book, and I still have it today,” she said.

“I treasured it then, and I still do.”

On April 30, Dopp and other members of Bloomington Deanery parishes gathered with Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein at St. Charles Borromeo Church to take part in another of the continuing series of liturgies throughout the archdiocese in honor of St. Theodora, Indiana’s first saint.

“It was a thrill to see this unfold over the last few years,” said Dopp, who serves as St. Charles Borromeo’s director of religious education.

While Dopp was familiar with St. Theodora’s missionary work, Indiana University students Jessica Richers, John Cecil and Anna Silva were impressed to learn more about Indiana’s first saint and her commitment to Catholic education.

“I didn’t realize Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College [founded by St. Theodora in 1840] is the oldest Catholic college for women in the United States,” Cecil said.

Richers appreciated the way the Mass drew people from all parts of the deanery.

“It’s exciting to see everyone come together for this,” she said.

Joe Brake, who teaches sixth-grade religion and history at St. Charles Borromeo School, said he was able to incorporate St. Theodora’s sainthood into his curriculum.

“We spent a great deal of time on the canonization process, what it means to be a canonized saint and [asking] them to intercede for us,” he said.

Brake, who is also youth minister and director of religious education at St. John the Apostle Parish in Bloomington, called the special celebration a wonderful event.

“It’s not very often that the archbishop comes to your parish to celebrate a saint from Indiana,” he said.

In his homily, Archbishop Buechlein said people of faith owe St. Theodora “a great debt of gratitude” for her commitment to founding Catholic education in Indiana.

He called her a great woman of accomplishments who had “an all-consuming love for God,” and a person who “gave her entire life to Jesus in prayer.”

God “blessed her as a valued missionary of faith in truly missionary times,” the archbishop said.

Each of us can follow St. Theodora’s example, he added.

“All of us are called to be missionaries in our way,” Archbishop Buechlein said, “to live our faith, to be proud of our faith.”†