St. Theodore Guerin

This article in the Washington Post discusses the recent canonization of four saints in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the new saints is Mother Theodore Guerin, who lived and worked in Indiana.

Among those at the ceremony on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica were ailing Chicago Cardinal Francis George and five Indiana churchmen. George, who is recovering from cancer surgery, flew to Rome with hundreds of alumnae, trustees and students of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana. After enduring a long sea and land journey, Guerin, born Anne-Therese Guerin in Brittany in 1798, turned the porch of a drafty farmhouse into a chapel for spiritual comfort. By the time of her death in 1856, her order was running schools and orphanages in Indiana, the pope noted.

In the crowd was the American man whose restored vision was judged by the Vatican to be the miracle necessary for Guerin's sainthood.

"Being here with so many faithful, seeing the pope," said Phil McCord, "it's really overwhelming." McCord, a 60-year-old engineer who manages the campus of Guerin's order, recalled how he had faced a corneal transplant after damage from cataract surgery. He went to the chapel at the college and asked Guerin for help, and his eyesight started to improve the next morning, said McCord, the son of a lay Baptist minister.

You can read more about the ceremony here.

USA Today traces Guerin's path to sainthood, which you can read here.

Robert King, blogger for the Indianapolis Star, chronicled his experiences in Rome, which you can read here.