An influence felt throughout Indiana:
St. Theodora’s first feast day celebrated across archdiocese
Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein delivers his homily during an Oct. 3 Mass in honor of St. Theodora Guérin at Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School in Clarksville in the New Albany Deanery. Students from all the Catholic schools in the deanery were present for the Mass that concluded a yearlong series of liturgies in honor of Indiana’s first saint that were celebrated in each of the archdiocese’s 11 deaneries. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher and Mike Krokos
CLARKSVILLE—On Oct. 15, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI declared St. Theodora Guérin a saint of the universal Church during a festive liturgy at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
Nearly a year later, Catholics across the archdiocese commemorated her first feast day as a saint on Oct. 3.
Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein marked the day by celebrating Mass in honor of St. Theodora at the Sam & Paula Robinson Performing Arts Center at Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School in Clarksville, which was founded in 1951 by the Sisters of Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods.
Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general of the archdiocese, led a similar celebration for students in the six schools that make up Mother Theodore Catholic Academies. The Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis included nearly 700 students who attend Holy Angels School, Holy Cross Central School, Central Catholic School, St. Andrew & St. Rita Catholic Academy, St. Anthony School and St. Philip Neri School.
A Mass was also celebrated for the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods at the Church of the Immaculate Conception at their motherhouse. Father Daniel Hopcus, chaplain of the congregation, presided at the liturgy for the religious community that St. Theodora established in 1840.
A great legacy
The Clarksville Mass was the final in a yearlong series of liturgies in honor of St. Theodora celebrated by the archbishop in each of the archdiocese’s 11 deaneries.
Attending the Mass were student representatives from Providence as well as students from each of the eight grade schools in the New Albany Deanery.
Joan Hurley, president of Providence, spoke before the Mass about the honor of hosting the special celebration.
“We have a great legacy that we owe that saint,” she said. “I think it’s a great privilege for us because this is the first-ever feast day for St. Theodora.”
Annette “Mickey” Lentz, archdiocesan executive director for Catholic Education and Faith Formation, said having the final Mass in a school setting was important because of St. Theodora’s seminal role in founding Catholic education in the state.
“When we planned these Masses, this [school] was to be the culmination,” said Lentz, who was present at the liturgy. “This was to be the big and last hurrah. What better way to do it than with kids from the New Albany Deanery.”
‘Our heritage goes back to this saint’
At the start of the Mass, Archbishop Buechlein looked out at the students in the congregation who were wearing their distinctive school uniforms.
“It’s like a rainbow of color,” he said. “It’s beautiful. [Today] is a special day. It’s the first feast day of St. Theodora. And many of us, myself included, were educated by the Sisters of Providence. … Our heritage goes back to this saint.”
One of the students at the Mass was Daniel Becht, an eighth-grader at Holy Family School in New Albany. He participated in the liturgy’s offertory procession.
“I feel pretty honored that I got invited because St. Theodora is a saint, and it’s pretty cool that I got [asked] to take up the gifts,” he said.
Daniel’s mother, Elizabeth, was also on hand for the Mass. Like her son, she attended Holy Family School and later graduated from Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School.
“It’s just kind of gone full circle,” Elizabeth Becht said. “I think the importance of St. Theodora’s role in our community and our faith is just demonstrated in a large way. Faith is an important part of our family. The Sisters of Providence play a big role in that.”
An influence felt throughout Indiana
The influence of the religious community founded by St. Theodora reaches beyond the New Albany Deanery to parishes and schools throughout central and southern Indiana.
On the saint’s first feast day, students from the six schools that make up Mother Theodore Catholic Academies in Indianapolis gathered for the special Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral with Msgr. Schaedel, who was the primary celebrant.
At the beginning of his homily, Msgr. Schaedel echoed advice shared at the end of the movie “Spiderman 3.”
“It is the choices we make that make us who we are,” he told the students. “We can always choose to do the right thing.”
Msgr. Schaedel said that phrase is appropriate when discussing the life of Indiana’s first saint.
For St. Theodora, life was anything but fun and games, Msgr. Schaedel said. Her two brothers and her father died, and her mother was so devastated by those tragedies that she was sick for 10 years. Though she took on the household chores and other responsibilities, St. Theodora did not let life’s tragedies define who she was, he said.
“She basically had two choices: She could have cried, she could have gotten angry with God, she could have given up on life [or] been mean,” Msgr. Schaedel said, “or she could trust in God, she could rely on God to get her through these tough times.”
St. Theodora, we know, did not give up, Msgr. Schaedel said.
“She believed that if she trusted in God, God would see her through tough times. She never gave up on God or anything else.”
God did see St. Theodora through life’s challenges, first as a young girl in France then later when she entered religious life and become a missionary, and helped found Catholic education and the Sisters of Providence at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana, Msgr. Schaedel said.
Msgr. Schaedel encouraged the students to follow St. Theodora’s example of trusting in God.
“We can always choose to do the right thing,” he said. “Our choices make us who we are. And who do we want to be?”
Awed by her courage
After the Mass, Karen Gamero said she is awed by the courage that St. Theodora showed in life.
“She was a wondrous woman who did so many things,” said Karen, an eighth-grade student at Holy Cross Central School in Indianapolis.
“I probably wouldn’t be able to lose that many family members in [my] life,” she added.
Keyfer Dennison, another eighth-grade student at Holy Cross, said he was impressed by the life that St. Theodora lived, especially her coming to Indiana from France as a missionary.
“I bet it would be hard [to do that],” he said.
Keyfer said St. Theodora’s life of faith inspires him, too.
“It encourages me to go to church more and learn more about God,” he said.
Our own saint
Nearly a year after St. Theodora’s canonization, followed by deanery celebrations in her honor, Archbishop Buechlein still marveled in it all.
“It’s hard to imagine that we have our own saint,” he said during his homily.
“In our prayer, we acknowledge St. Theodora as our friend. She prays for us. And what an extraordinary joy that we have a formally declared saint from our local Church in Indiana to encourage us and to spur us on to become holy.” †
