PROVIDENCE
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PROVIDENCE
followed her to Ruille and the community prospered.
Though the sisters devoted themselves to various
works of mercy and charity, the instruction of youth
was their primarv object. They soon had schools
not onlv throughout the diocese, but in distant coun-
tries also. In 1839 Rt. Rev. Simon-Gabriel Brut6,
firet Bishop of ^'incennes, commissioned his vicar-
general, Mgr de la Hailandiere. to return to his native
country to procure priests and rehgious teachers for
his immense diocese. Scarcely had he arrived in
France when the death of Bishop Brute was an-
nounced, followed by the appointment of Mgr de la
Hailandiere as his successor. The newly-consecrated
bishop obtained from Mother Mary a colony of reli-
gious for Indiana. Six sisters, under the leadership of
Mother Theodore Guerin, 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 ex-pect, they were taken to a densely
wooded country', where only the foundation of a
building for them w;is 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. Mars'-of-the-Woods. In the summer of
1841 the new "building being completed, a board-
ing school was opened with seven pupils. In 1841
another member from the French mother-house ar-
rived at St. Marj-'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, ^^'hile the
new foundation prospered, many sufferings and hard-
ships 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. M the Seventh Council of Balti-
more, the bishop placed his difficulties before the
assembly and offered his resignation, at the same time
strongly denouncing the Sisters of Pro^•idence. 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 \'incennes was received
from Rome. The death of Mother Theodore occurred
14 May, 18.56, and so eminent was her hohness 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 satisfac- tory and desires to persevere. A year of second no\-i- tiate precedes the final and perpetual vows. This year, during which the nuns devote themselves en- tirely to the spiritual life, is passed at the mother- house. .\ 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 elec- tive body comprising a superior-general and three assistants, a secretan,-, 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), b. at St. Servan, Brittanv, 16 April, 1818; d. at St. Mar>--of-
the-Woods, 30 Januarj', 1856, whose life has been
pubUshed under the title "An ApostoUc Woman",
and Sister M. Joseph (Elvire le Fer de la Motte), b.
at St. Servan, 16 Februarj", 1825; d. at St. Marj--of-
the-Woods, 12 December, 1881, a sketch of whose hfe
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 \'incennes and Terre Haute; an in-
dustrial 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.
Sister Mahy Theodosia.
III. Sisters of Providence of Ch.\rity. — TheSis- ters of Providence, kno^vn also as Sisters of Charity, were founded in Mont real, Canada, 25 March, 1S43, un- der the Rule of St . Vincent de Paul, by Rt . Rev. Ignace Bourget. In December, 1861, a branch of the order, with intention to form a mother-house, was established at Kingston, Ontario, under the protection of Rt. Rev. Edward J. Horan, then bishop of that diocese. From this establishment four sisters were sent in November, 1873, to open a mission in Hol}'oke, Massa- chusetts. In 1892 this branch of the order, with permission of the Holy See, became a diocesan es- tablishment, with Rt. Rev. Thomas D. Beaven, Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts, as ecclesiastical superior. There are no lay sisters in the order, and the members are devoted exclusively to the works of charity. Since they became diocesan their mem- bership approximates three hundred, and the in- stitutes of charity entrusted to their management have been multiplied. In the present year (1908) they have in charge four diocesan hospitals and one sanatorium, with an annual total of about five thou- sand patients treated therein. Connected with these hospitals is a training school for pupil nurses, and the sisters also receive a professional training and per- sonally care for and supervise the treatment of their patients. They have two orphan asylums, caring for about three hundred chOdren; an infant asylum of modern construction capable of sheltering one hun- dred and fifty little ones, ranging from infancy to six years. Their duties also extend to the aged of both sexes. They care for one hundred and forty aged and infirm women, and for eighty aged men, in three separate homes of recent construction. They have two homes for working girls, and the provisions of their rule permit them to undertake any work of charity which the bishop of the diocese may see fit to place in their keeping. (See Ch.\hity, Sisters op. Sisters of Charity of Proridcnce.)
Sister Mary of Providence.
IV. Sisters of Providence of Saint Anne, founded at Turin in 1834 by the Marchesa Julia Falletti de Barolo for the care of children and the sick. The order was approved by the Holy See 8 March, 1848. Its mother-house is at Florence, and there arc daugh- ter institutions at Bagnoria, Castelfidardo, and Assisi, where the sisters conduct the industrial school of San Francesco, founded in 1902. In Rome their two infant asvlums of St. Anne (Via dei Gracchi) and the Sacred Heart (Via Conde) harbour three hundred chiklren. At Secunderabad in the Diocese of Hyder- abad, India, they have a convent where they ediicate European and Eurasian girls, and they also conduct a school at Kazipet in the same diocese. In Italian Eritrea they have a home for children redeemed from
slavery.
Heimbdcher, Orden u. Kongregationen, III (Paderborn, 1908),
Blanche M. Kelly.
V. Sisters of Pro\idence of the Institute of Charity, an offshoot from the Sisters of Providence,
