<p>Congratulations to St. Mary’s-of-the-Woods College on having their founder, Mother Theodore Guerin canonized as one of four new saints announced by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Saturday.</p>
<p>Mother Theodore Guerin, a French nun, travelled to the American frontier with five other French nuns in the early 1800s. This group founded the first all-woman’s college in Indiana in 1840 (first student enrolled in 1841) as well as opening many orphanages and secondary schools to serve the early pioneers. </p>
<p>Note: Oberlin was the first U.S. coed college (1833), and Wesleyan (formerly Georgia Female College) was the first all-woman’s college in the country (1836).</p>
<p>I’m posting this here, since there is no forum for this college on collegeconfidential.</p>
<p>And in 1831, Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT was the first college to be named “Wesleyan” (if the founders only knew what they had started!)</p>
<p>You know, those comments wouldn’t have been made if it were about Muslims. Isn’t it time we stopped berating ALL religions? Many things go into the cannonization, the least of it being founding a Women’s College, but it can show the type of person that she was. Congratulations to St. Mary of the Woods, and to Mother Guerin High School, as well.</p>
<p>perhaps if denigrating other people’s religions or lifestyles made you feel superior to your fellow man you could begin to understand the motivation of those so compelled to do it (there is otherwise no point in it–they simply can’t resist the brief satisfaction it affords them)…short of that, there is no explanation beyond common hate…</p>
<p>…certainly not indicative of “tolerance” & “diversity”…not by any classical definitions of these two, now worthless, terms.</p>
<p>I read a post that said the founder of Saint Mary’s became a saint, and asked the obvious question. Obviously the OP thought they were connected or the OP would not have made the post WITH the connection.</p>
<p>For you to jump to the conclusion you did is uncalled for. Maybe you yourself should think about your quick to find offense behaviour in the context of tolerance.</p>
<p>The little touches of humor here did not seem “denigrating” to me. As an “ecumenical in the flesh person” (half-Catholic, half-Jewish; attended Catholic schools for 13 years), I didn’t take any offense. Just one opinion - maybe I’m just thick-skinned or like a duck (water rolls off?)</p>
<p>Ya know…it bugs me when people make clearly sarcastic comments and then do that wide-eyed “who me…what’d I do?” disingenuous b.s. thing when they are called out.</p>
<p>newmass - I didn’t take your orginal comment (#4) as harmlessly ‘asking an obvious question’ either. Maybe you were ‘jumping to the conclusion’ we are all stupid. :-)</p>
<p>Then, while you are jumping to conclusions, perhaps you can tell me the relevance of the original post in a discussion board about selecting colleges?</p>
<p>It’s perfectly relevant to selecting a college. If the founder of this particular school has been cannonized by the Holy Father, there is proof that the nun in question has directly influenced God to perform at least two miracles. Being that they were most likely petitioned for by people who attended this school, people may be swayed towards this school for religious reasons.</p>