Our History

Guerin College Preparatory High School sat on the campus of its founding schools, Holy Cross High School for boys and Mother Theodore Guerin High School for girls. The founding schools were opened in 1961 and 1962, respectively. The Brothers of Holy Cross and Sisters of Providence ran each school separately but with shared values and traditions.  Guerin College Preparatory High School was established as a co-educational school in 2004 and closed at the end of the 2019-20 school year.

The high school sat on 23 acres at the corner of 80th and Belmont in River Grove.

Nearly 20,000 students from Northwest Chicago and the surrounding suburbs have graduated from the schools over the past 69 years.

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin is the eighth United States saint. She was canonized on Oct. 15, 2006. She is the namesake of our school and foundress of the Sisters of Providence.
One of Saint Mother Theodore’s sayings was "Love the children first, then teach them." This had been a guiding principle at Guerin Prep.


Learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin
https://spsmw.org/about/saint-mother-theodore-guerin/her-story/

 

About Saint Mother Theodore Guerin (Saint Theodora)

Born: Oct. 2, 1798, in the village of Etables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France

Birth name: Anne-Therese Guerin

Parents: Laurent and Isabelle Guerin

Entered Sisters of Providence at Ruillé-sur-Loir, France: Aug. 18, 1823

Religious name: Sister St. Theodore

Professed first vows: Sept. 8, 1825

Professed perpetual vows: Sept. 5, 1831

Ministries in France: Teacher at Preuilly-sur-Claise and served as teacher and school superior in Rennes and Soulaines. In Soulaines she also ministered among the sick poor.

Missionary voyage from France to New York: July 27, 1840, to Sept. 4, 1840

Sisters of Providence who accompanied Mother Theodore to the United States of America to establish the mission at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind.: Sister Olympiade Boyer, Sister St. Vincent Ferrer Gagé, Sister Basilide Sénéschal, Sister Mary Xavier Lerée, and Sister Mary Liguori Tiersen

Date of arrival at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: Oct. 22, 1840

Opened Academy at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: July 4, 1841

A Celtic cross stands as a memorial to Saint Mother Theodore Guerin. Etched in the base are the words: “I sleep, but my heart watches over this house which I have built.”

Other establishments opened by Mother Theodore: Schools at Jasper, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Village, Vincennes, Montgomery, Madison, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, Evansville, North Madison, Lanesville and Columbus, all in Indiana, and St. Francisville in Illinois; also two orphanages, one for girls, the other for boys in Vincennes. In addition, Mother Theodore opened pharmacies where free remedies were dispensed to the poor at Vincennes and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She also oversaw the construction of a new motherhouse for the Sisters of Providence and several additions to the Academy, both at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.

Date of death: May 14, 1856

Place of burial: The Shrine of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. (A Celtic cross of stone memorializes Saint Mother Theodore’s former burial site in the Sisters of Providence Cemetery at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.)

Opening of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Mother Theodore: Sept. 8, 1909

Received title “Venerable” from the Roman Catholic Church: by Pope John Paul II on July 22, 1992, in recognition of a virtuous life lived to a heroic degree.

Received title “Blessed” from the Roman Catholic Church: by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 25, 1998, during a beatification ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in Rome.

Canonized: as Saint Theodora Oct. 15, 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in Rome.

Feast Day for Saint Mother Theodore: Oct. 3.

Download a more detailed brief history of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin here.