Women’s History Month: Devotion to Our Lady

“The Eighth American Saint” describes Saint Mother Theodore’s devotions, especially her devotion to Our Lady:

“She [Saint Mother Theodore] had other devotions — to the Holy Spirit, to Our Lady, to the Holy Infancy, and she loved the tradition of guardian angels. This last she had brought with her from Ruillé, where the religious carried out the lovely custom of saluting the guardian angel of whomever they met. It was a devotion, she said, excellent for religious teachers, because their own duties to children were in so many ways like those of the guardian angels.

“St. Anne, too, she loved dearly, and the great Teresa; but the deepest and most tender of her devotions was to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for there she saw best exemplified the providence of God — their own title, their own aim.

“Almost from the time the sisters came to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Mother Theodore had established a devotion to Our Lady. ‘We began the month of Mary as solemnly as possible.’ She wrote in her journal in May, 1841, and it was a devotion that was to spread from their convent to Terre Haute and to other towns. Later the sodality of the Children of Mary was founded at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. This organization was the first of its kind in Indiana.” (pages 99-100)

To learn more about the spirituality of the Sisters of Providence, click here.