SAINT MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Indiana (October 10, 2006) - A section of US 150 near Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College now is memorialized as the Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Memorial Highway. Governor Daniels joined the Sisters of Providence and local officials today to unveil one of several signs designating the road in her honor.

"We've had our full share of politicians, sports figures, and military heroes, but only one saint," said Daniels. "The work of Mother Theodore was the most important and permanent a person can do on this earth, and it's right that we remind future Hoosiers of her life and the faith she lived by."

On Sunday, at a ceremony in the Vatican, Mother Theodore will become the first person from Indiana and the eighth person from the United States to be canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

Daniels directed the Indiana Department of Transportation to formally name the section of the road between US 40 and Bolton Road in honor of Mother Theodore. In 2001, the Indiana House of Representatives passed House Resolution 0031 to honor Mother Theodore for her contributions to the state and requested that a portion of US 150 be named in her honor.

"We are very excited that Governor Daniels and the state of Indiana have chosen to honor Mother Theodore in this special way. By naming a section of the highway in her honor, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods will be even more recognizable to those who travel by," said Sister Denise Wilkinson, the Congregation's general superior. "We also hope this honor calls attention to the historical contributions Mother Theodore and the generations of sisters who have followed in her footsteps have made to the education and well-being of countless Indiana citizens for 166 years."

A portrait of Mother Guerin also hangs on the south wall of the Governor's Office, part of the Hoosier Heritage Portrait Collection. The governor added the portrait, which is on loan from the Sisters of Providence, in July.

Mother Theodore moved from France to Indiana in 1840 to establish a ministry near Terre Haute. The first school she established in the summer of 1841 was the Sisters of Providence Academy which is now known as Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, the oldest liberal arts Catholic college in the United States.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared Mother Theodore "Venerable" and she was beatified in 1998 after her first miracle was recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. A second miracle was recognized in 2006 and a date was set for Mother Theodore's canonization.

Additional media contact: Dave Cox, Sisters of Providence, 812/535-2810, dcox@spsmw.org