Saint Theodora Guerin

NARRATOR: This Indiana Bicentennial minute is made possible by the Indiana Historical Society and the law firm of Krieg DeVault.

PAULEY: It took three months travel from France to the wilderness of Indiana in 1840 where she wrote, “What was our astonishment to find ourselves still in the midst of the forest, not even a house in sight…”

Video of the water, then of a nun walking through the forest. Images are shown of a nun.

PAULEY: That was sister Theodora Guerin, arriving at the diocese to teach and care for the sick and poor. She opened an Academy known as, St. Mary’s of the Woods and established 10 other schools and opened two orphanages.

Images are shown of her statue, and then of the priests and bishops of the Catholic Church.

PAULEY: She died in 1856. In 1909, Bishop Silas Chatard of Indianapolis, knowing her service and miracles attributed to her, began the process of beatification and canonization and in 2006, St. Theodora Guerin became Indiana’s only Catholic saint. I’m Jane Pauley.

NARRATOR: This Indiana Bicentennial minute is made possible by the Indiana Historical Society and the law firm of Krieg DeVault.