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The
excitement of pilgrimage
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
On Oct. 10, I will lead a group of 27 people to Rome for the
canonization of Theodore Guerin, the first Hoosier saint, and only the
eighth person from the United States to be canonized. She is the
foundress of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
outside Terre Haute.
By this time my readers no doubt are familiar with the story of Theodore
Guerin (to avoid gender confusion she will be listed in the roll of
saints as St. Theodora Guerin). Born Anne-Therese Guerin in France in
1798, she was given the name Sister St. Theodore when she entered the
Sisters of Providence at the age of 25. One of four children (only two
reached adulthood), Anne-Therese was home-schooled because schools had
been closed in France during the Reign of Terror that followed the
French Revolution. She was 15 when the family was traumatized by the
murder of her father. During her novitiate, she fell victim to smallpox.
Though she survived, the treatment damaged her digestive system so that
the rest of her life she had to subsist on a bland diet of liquids and
soft foods.
Although Sister St. Theodore did not volunteer for ministry in the
Diocese of Vincennes in the United States, she was chosen to lead five
sisters to the wilderness of western Indiana. It took 26 days to make
the crossing during the hurricane season, but eventually Sister St.
Theodore, who soon became known to her sisters as Mother Theodore, made
it to what today is Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. It was 1840. Mother
Theodore would only live 16 years after her arrival in Indiana. She died
at age 57.
Her cause for canonization began in 1909 after the miraculous cure,
through her intercession, of Sister Mary Theodosia, a Sister of
Providence, from Attica. Mother Theodore was declared “venerable” (one
who had lived a virtuous life to a heroic degree) in 1992 and was
beatified in 1998.
Arriving in Rome the morning of Oct. 11, our group will board a tour bus
and cross the Italian peninsula for two primary destinations along the
Adriatic Sea: San Giovanni Rotondo and Lanciano.
San Giovanni Rotondo is a former home of the stigmatic Padre Pio who
died at the age of 81 in 1968. He was a dedicated confessor who
sometimes refused absolution to those lacking true repentance. Yet,
thousands sought him out for confession. His life, John Paul II said at
his canonization in 2002, gave “testimony that difficulty and suffering,
if accepted with love, transform themselves into a privileged path of
sanctity; opening toward a larger good that is known only to the Lord.”
His, the pope said, was “the spirituality of the cross” which opens
hearts to hope.
Padre Pio became well known to many Americans through the contact he had
with American troops during the Italian campaign of World War II.
Interestingly, Father Pio was investigated and cleared during several
Vatican inquiries into charges of fraud. His dream was to build a
hospital for the poor, a dream that was realized, but not without his
fund-raising endeavors (he had taken a vow of poverty) being questioned
by superiors. It was not the first time a future saint has had to
overcome jealousy.
Wildly popular in Italy, more than 300,000 attended the canonization of
Padre Pio. Today approximately 8 million people visit his tomb annually.
Lanciano is the scene of a Eucharistic miracle dating to 700 AD. That
was long before the time of St. Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the 13th
century. It was St. Thomas who utilized the Aristilian theory of
transubstantiation to explain how bread and wine become Christ during
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. To quote the Catechism: “By the
consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the
whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ
Our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of
his Blood. This change the Holy Catholic Church has fittingly and
properly called transubstantiation” (1376).
The miracle of Lanciano commemorates a priest who was plagued by doubt
as to whether the consecrated host was truly the Body of Christ and the
consecrated wine truly the Blood of Christ. He constantly prayed for
faith. How could it be true? One morning while he was celebrating Mass,
after the words of consecration, the host turned to flesh and the
contents of the chalice turned to blood. Needless to say, his doubts
disappeared. The species were not consumed. Rather, they became an
instant focal point of veneration.
Through the centuries, the flesh has remained intact. The coagulated
blood remains in the form of five clots. These are preserved in a
monstrance in a chapel which dates to the 13th century. Except for its
bronze door, there is nothing pretentious about the chapel.
Italy is a land of relics. More than a few stretch credibility. The
miracle of Lanciano might fall into that category were it not for
extensive scientific studies conducted over the years, as recently as
1970-1971 and 1981. Those studies convincingly exclude falsification or
manipulation. Scientists have found that the clots are human blood and
the flesh striated cardiac muscular material. There is no trace of any
chemical preservatives as found in mummies. Both the flesh and the
clotted blood belong to AB blood group, the same found in the shroud of
Turin.
The shrine was visited by Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, in 1974.
He left these words in the pilgrim’s register: “O Lord, let our faith in
you, our hope and love for you increase more and more.” He was quoting
St. Thomas Aquinas’ Adoro Te devote, the hymn sung during benediction of
the Blessed Sacrament.
A visit to the shrine of the miracle of Lanciano is deeply moving, at
least both my visits there have been so.
Having spent the second and third day of our pilgrimage along the
Adriatic Coast, our group will leave for Rome on day four to see some of
the usual sights of that city: the Roman Forum, the Imperial Forum, the
Palatine and Capitoline Hills and a visit to the Coliseum. There will
also be a visit to the catacombs of Calixtus where a half-million people
were once interred, including popes, saints and martyrs.
Saturday, the fifth day of the pilgrimage, will feature a visit to the
pope’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. Mass will be celebrated in the
Basilica of St. Mary Major. Our group will then join other pilgrims from
Indiana at the magnificent Church of the Gesu for vespers. Sunday will
be devoted to the canonization.
Canonization does not make a person a saint. Rather, it acknowledges
that a person is a saint. Theodore Guerin grew in sanctity over the 57
years of her life. Notable, of course, was her total trust in the
providence of God in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. A
sensitive, kind and forgiving person, for many years she believed she
was held in disfavor, even disgrace, by her superiors in France. Huge
obstacles were placed in her path by the second Bishop of Vincennes,
Celestin DeLa Hailandiere. Through it all she was a selfless woman of
prayer who gave herself to the mission she was directed to establish and
to the women who joined the emerging religious congregation centered at
St. Mary-of-the-Woods. She died a saint. Now that will be formally
acknowledged.
More next week. |
