Pilgrim: Let Your Heart Be Bold: Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, I.H.M.

by Margaret Gannon

This study of the life of Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, is a revision of one that was written in 1978. At the time the notion of the Pilgrim Church was new to us all. That led to a recognition that Theresa Maxis Duchemin, one of the two founders of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, could be understood as the embodiment of the pilgrim in search of God and God’s Will for her.



In response to several requests for me to revise the study, I have set out to do so. In the intervening years several helpful studies have been published which add important information and insights into Theresa’s life and experiences. These include Carolyn E. Fick’s The Making of The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (1990), Molly M. Herrmann’s The French Colonial Question and the Disintegration of White Supremacy in the Colony of Saint Domingue, 1789-1792(2005), Diane Batts Morrow’s Persons of Color and Religious at the Same The Oblate Sisters of Providence1828-1860 (2002), and Marita-Constance Supan’s chapter “Dangerous Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin and the Michigan Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” in Building A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1997).



These works supplement and enhance the earlier research pursued by previous writers who, in the style of their own times, training and perspectives provided basic information about Theresa. These include Grace H. Sherwood, Immaculata Gillespie, IHM, Marie Alma Ryan, IHM, and Rosalita Kelly, IHM. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the contribution of all these to our understanding of Theresa.

115 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 6, 2018

Reviews

[Sister · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slim volume, this book briefly tells the story of Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, IHM. Mother Theresa was one of the first 4 Oblate Sisters of Providence. She left and became one of the co-founders of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She exiled herself to the Grey Nuns of Canada [whose founder is on the road to canonization] in order to facilitate a reunification between the IHMs of Monroe and the IHMs of Pennsylvania. It didn't happen, even though her primary opponent, Bishop Lefebvre, had died. She was eventually allowed to return to Westchester, where she died after contracting pneumonia. There was a time when some Oblate Sisters looked at Mother Theresa as a traitor - after all, she left the Congregation when it was barely holding on after Fr. Joubert's death. What is ironic is that Mother Theresa had an even harder time in her struggles with the Church hierarchy. Being headstrong works in founding a community - it doesn't always work at sustaining one.