www.newadvent.org Open in urlscan Pro
37.19.207.34  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

../utility/search.htm

<form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">
  <!-- Hidden Inputs -->
  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active">
  <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0">
  <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9">
  <!-- Search Box -->
  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label>
  <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel">
  <!-- Submit Button -->
  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label>
  <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel">
</form>

Text Content

 

Search: Submit Search



 Home   Encyclopedia   Summa   Fathers   Bible   Library 

 A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z 


Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > P > Congregations of Providence II


SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this
website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church
Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...

(St. Mary-of-the-Woods)

Among the teaching religious orders that originated in France at the close of
the Revolution was the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence of
Ruillésur-Loir, founded in 1806 by M. Jacques-François Dujarié, Curé of Ruillé
(Sarthe). The society had a struggling existence for several years, but was
finally established with the collaboration of Joséphine Zoé du Roscoät, the
first superior general. Mother du Roscoät was of an ancient noble Breton family
and was renowned for her piety, charity, and zeal. Many followed her to Ruillé
and the community prospered. Though the sisters devoted themselves to various
works of mercy and charity, the instruction of youth was their primary object.
They soon had schools not only throughout the diocese, but in distant countries
also. In 1839 Rt. Rev. Simon-Gabriel Bruté, first Bishop of Vincennes,
commissioned his vicar-general, Mgr de la Hailandière, to return to his native
country to procure priests and religious teachers for his immense diocese.
Scarcely had he arrived in France when the death of Bishop Bruté was announced,
followed by the appointment of Mgr de la Hailandière as his successor. The
newly-consecrated bishop obtained from Mother Mary a colony of religious for
Indiana. Six sisters, under the leadership of Mother Theodore Guérin, a woman of
exceptional qualifications and high spiritual attainments, reached their home in
the New World, 22 Oct., 1840. Instead of being established in the episcopal
city, as they had been led to expect, they were taken to a densely wooded
country, where only the foundation of a building for them was completed; and
they were obliged to find shelter in a neighbouring farmhouse, one room and a
corn loft being at their disposal. After a few weeks the community obtained sole
possession of this house, which then became the mother-house, called St.
Mary-of-the-Woods. In the summer of 1841 the new building being completed, a
boarding school was opened with seven pupils. In 1841 another member from the
French mother-house arrived at St. Mary's, Irma Le Fer de la Motte, Sister St.
Francis Xavier, who became mistress of novices.



The foundress showed her foresight and capacity for organization and
administration, in an educational plan providing for the advanced studies and
culture of the time. As early as 1846, a charter was granted by the State
empowering the institution to confer academic honours and collegiate degrees.
While the new foundation prospered, many sufferings and hardships were endured,
arising from the rigours of the climate, poverty, isolation, a foreign language,
troublesome subjects, and the like. The keenest trial of all was
misunderstanding with the bishop. It lasted seven years. At the Seventh Council
of Baltimore, the bishop placed his difficulties before the assembly and offered
his resignation, at the same time strongly denouncing the Sisters of Providence.
In 1847, just as he had informed Mother Theodore that he deposed her from her
office as superior-general (in which she had, with his consent, been confirmed
for life), released her from her vows, and dismissed her from her congregation,
the Papal Brief appointing Bishop Bazin to the See of Vincennes was received
from Rome. The death of Mother Theodore occurred 14 May, 1856, and so eminent
was her holiness that preliminaries have been undertaken for introducing the
cause of her beatification at Rome.

The sisters take simple vows. The postulantship, two months, is followed by a
novitiate of two years, at the end of which vows are taken for three years,
renewed then for five years, if the subject is satisfactory and desires to
persevere. A year of second novitiate precedes the final and perpetual vows.
This year, during which the nuns devote themselves entirely to the spiritual
life, is passed at the mother-house. A course of normal training is carried on
in connexion with the novitiate properly so called, and summer sessions are held
during the vacation for all teachers who return to the mother-house for the
annual retreat, The administrative faculty is an elective body comprising a
superior-general and three assistants, a secretary, procuratrix, treasurer, and
a general chapter. The rules and constitutions received final approval from the
Holy See in 1887. Among prominent members of the order were: Sister St. Francis
Xavier (Irma Le Fer de la Motte), born at St. Servan, Brittany, 16 April, 1818;
died at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, 30 January, 1856, whose life has been published
under the title "An Apostolic Woman", and Sister M. Joseph (Elvire le Fer de la
Motte), born at St. Servan, 16 February, 1825; died at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, 12
December, 1881, a sketch of whose life has been published in French. The sisters
conduct parochial schools and academies in the Archdioceses of Baltimore,
Boston, and Chicago; in the Dioceses of Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, Peoria, and
Grand Rapids; orphanages at Vincennes and Terre Haute; an industrial school at
Indianapolis; a college four miles west of Terre Haute. Statistics for 1910 are:
937 sisters; 68 parochial schools; 15 academies; 2 orphan asylums; 1 industrial
school; 20,000 children.




ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Theodosia, M. (1911). Sisters of Providence. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12507b.htm

MLA citation. Theodosia, Sister Mary. "Sisters of Providence." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12507b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address
is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I
greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical
errors and inappropriate ads.

Copyright © 2023 by New Advent LLC. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT