Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods

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Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana
(SP)
Seat Saint Mary-of-the-Woods , Indiana
founding October 22, 1840

place St. Mary of the Woods
Website sistersofprovidence.org
Church of the Immaculate Conception (Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana)

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods are a Roman Catholic religious congregation . It was founded in 1840 by Saint Théodore Guérin in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. Mother Theodora and her companions come from the Sœurs de la Providence monastery in Ruillé-sur-Loir, France. They went there at an invitation from the Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana . In 1843 the Order became independent in the USA and in 1887 the Order's rules were approved by the Holy See.

More than 5200 women have entered the Order since 1840. In 2014 the order had almost 350 sisters. 300 of them were at the mother house in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. Further sisters work in the District of Columbia , 27 other states and in Asia.

In the past, the Order was also active in missions in Peru and Antigua .

The Sisters of Providence use the abbreviation SP. The community is a member of the Women of Providence in Collaboration.

The founder, mother Théodore Guérin , was canonized on October 15, 2006. Her relics are in a shrine in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods and in the monastery cemetery.

history

At the invitation of Bishop Simon Bruté, the Sœurs de la Providence de Ruillé-sur-Loir , France, sent Sister Theodore Guérin, in 1840, to found a school in the Diocese of Vincennes , Indiana . She was accompanied by five sisters: Sister St. Vincent Ferrer (Victoire) Gagé, Sister Basilide (Josephine) Sénéschal, Sister Olympiade (Therese) Boyer, Sister Mary Xavier (Francis Louise) Lerée, and Sister Mary Liguori (Louise Frances) Tiercin. After traveling across the Atlantic and through the eastern United States, the sisters arrived in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on October 22, 1840. She lives with the local family, Joseph and Sarah Thralls. A memorial plaque has been put up there today .

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the Woods were founded as an independent community by the founding congregation in Ruillé-sur-Loir . The rules and constitutions were approved by the Holy See in 1887.

Educational institution

Right from the start, the community built a school. The first student was admitted on July 4, 1841. Today the school is called Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and is the oldest Roman Catholic college for women in the US. As early as 1846, a state charter was issued which allowed the college to award academic honors and degrees.

Soon the sisters were running several local schools. In doing so, they gained a solid reputation and became head of schools throughout Indiana and Illinois , Massachusetts , California , Florida , Texas , Oklahoma , the District of Columbia, and other states. They now also run schools in China, Taiwan and Arequipa, Peru.

Mission in Asia

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods were the first American congregation to go on the China mission.

Branch in Kaifeng

In the summer of 1919, Joseph Tacconi, Bishop of Kaifeng, China , met Mother Mary Cleophas Foley, Superior General, to ask for sisters for a school. On November 24th, Sister Gratia Luking arrived in Kaifeng to set up a primary school and a middle school. When the communist army under Mao Zedong reached Kaifeng in 1927, they took refuge with the Maryknoll Sisters in Korea.

They returned in 1929 and opened an orphanage and a novitiate . The young Congregation of Providence Sister-Catechists received papal approval in 1932.

During the Second World War, Kaifeng fell to the Japanese on June 6, 1938.

On December 8, 1941, the sister camp was attacked by the Japanese. The American sisters first went to a Baptist mission and then to a Benedictine camp.

On March 22, 1943, all of the sisters and the other US missionaries were taken to a concentration camp in Shandong . They came to Beijing five months later .

In September 1945, after the end of the war, they returned to Kaifeng. When the communists came to Kaifeng, American sisters went to Shanghai to the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sacré-Cœur) in Shanghai.

Taiwan

When communism took over, 23 sisters went to Taiwan and settled in Taichung . Luking and the other sisters built a new college there. This is now known as Providence University and opened in 1949. In 1987 she moved to the Shalu area, Taichung.

spirituality

According to their mission statement, the Sisters of Providence are committed to the mission "to be God's providence in the world by engaging in works of love, mercy and justice that serve God's people".

Current activities

The Sisters of Providence work in education, health, peace and justice, social service, and spiritual development. In addition to the individual ministries of its sisters, the parish finances several ministerial organizations.

White Violet Center for Eco-Justice

Sr. Morris, keeper of bees, c1900

White Violet Center for Environmental Justice focuses on organic food , education about it, and social justice. It was founded in 1995 and has a herd of alpacas , 1.39 km² of organic farmland , bees , a berry garden, a farmer's market, certified forest and orchards .

General Superiors

  • Holy Mother Théodore Guérin , Congregational founder and Roman Catholic saint , 1840–1856
    Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly 1868–1874
  • Mother, Mary Cecilia Bailly, 1856–1868
  • Mother, Anastasie Brown, 1868–1874
  • Mother, Mary Ephrem Glenn, 1874–1883
  • Mother Euphrasia Hinkle, 1883–1889
  • Mother Mary Cleophas Foley, 1890–1926, ordained Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and established the mission in China
  • Mother, Mary Raphael Slattery, 1926–1938
  • Mother, Mary Bernard Laughlin, 1938–1948
  • Mother Marie Helene Franey, 1948–1953
  • Mother Gertrude Clare Owens, 1954–1960
  • Mother Rose Angela Horan, 1960–1966
  • Mother, Mary Pius Regnier, 1966–1976
  • Sister Loretta Schafer, 1976–1981
  • Sister Anne Doherty, 1981–1986
  • Sister Nancy Nolan, 1986–1996
  • Sister Diane Ris, 1996-2001
  • Sister Ann Margaret O'Hara, 2001–2006
  • Sister Denise Wilkinson, 2006–2016
  • Sister Dawn Tomaszewski, 2016–

Other nuns

  • Sister Judith Birgen, Professor and Fulbright Lecturer (Uganda, 2008)
  • Sister Cecilia Clare Bocard, musician and composer for organ and piano
  • Sister Barbara Doherty, educator and theologian, president of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College 1984–1998
  • Sister Jeanne Knoerle, author and educator, president of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College 1968–1983
  • Sister Esther Newport, painter, art teacher, and founder of the Catholic Art Association
  • Sister Edith Pfau, painter, sculptor and art teacher
  • Sister Alexa Suelzer, theologian, writer and teacher

literature

  • Mary Borromeo Brown: History of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: Volume I . Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana 1949.
  • Eugenia Logan: History of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: Volume II . Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana 1978.
  • Mary Roger Madden: The Path Marked Out: History of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: Volume III . Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana 1991.
  • Ann Colette Wolf: Against All Odds: Sisters of Providence Mission to the Chinese (1920-1990) . Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana 1990.
  • Constitutions of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods, Diocese of Vincennes , Bloomington, Illinois 1897

Web links

Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Congregations_of_Providence  - sources and full texts (English)
Commons : Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elinor Tong Dehey: Religious Orders of Women in the United States: Accounts of Their Origin and of Their Most Important Institutions, Interwoven with letter Histories of Many Famous Convents . WB Conkey Company, 1913, p. 128-133 ( google.com [accessed July 29, 2019]).
  2. ↑ News Center. April 15, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Who are the Sisters of Providence? . Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  4. ^ New Shrine for Saint Mother Theodore Guerin . WTWO Terre Haute. October 3, 2014. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  5. ^ A b c Sister Mary Theodosia Mug: Congregations of Providence . In: Charles George Herbermann (Ed.): Catholic Encyclopedia . Robert Appleton, New York 1913.
  6. ↑ Saint Theodora Guérin . In: www.in.gov . Archived from the original on November 18, 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  7. ^ Bradsby, HC (1891). History of Vigo County, Indiana, with Biographical Selections. Chicago: SB Nelson & Co. pp. 543-544.
  8. ^ Providence University . In: www.pu.edu.tw . Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  9. ↑ Dave Cox: Providence Sisters work for justice in varied ministries . In: The Criterion , January 14, 2005. Retrieved October 29, 2009. 
  10. ↑ FORE: Religion-Christianity-EP-White Violet Center for EcoJustice. June 15, 2010, accessed July 29, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Guerin Outreach Ministries (en-US) . In: Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods . Retrieved May 26, 2017. 
  12. ↑ Green projects (en-US) . In: Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods . Retrieved May 26, 2017.