Sister Marie Therese Guigar
1927-2008

In 1927, on November 12, the Feast of All Dominican Saints, a daughter was born to Joseph and Mary Elizabeth (Freiburger) Guigar and baptized Marie Therese. The Guigars were already the parents of three sons, Jerry, Clement, and Thomas. Later, two more sons, Joseph and Robert, came into the family. Both parents were natives of Tyre, also known as Freiburg, located in the “thumb” of Michigan. After their marriage they made their home on a farm there, and there their children were all born.

The ancestors of both the Guigars and Freiburgers had immigrated to the States from Alsace-Lorraine. Marie Therese’s maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Hall, and the Halls had come from Northern Ireland. So German and Irish blood mingled in the veins of the Guigar children. Also, on her mother’s side of the family, the Guigars were related to Mother Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Mercy Sisters.

Marie Therese began her education in the two-room rural school in Tyre that her parents had also attended. These were the years of the Great Depression, and the family moved a couple of times, necessitating transfers to other schools. Marie Therese finished her elementary education at the public school in Carsonville, Michigan, and began her high school education at Carsonville High School. When the family moved to Peck, Michigan, she continued at Peck High School.

Two of Marie Therese’s aunts were Adrian Dominican Sisters, Sisters Cleophas and Ann Joseph Freiburger, as was one of her cousins, Sister Beatrice Ann Freiburger. Also, her grandmother, Bridget Hall Freiburger, was a dear friend of Mother Augustine Walsh, a former Mother General of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. In her autobiography, Sister Marie Therese wrote, “Mother Augustine spent the last night she was at home with my grandmother.” So it is not surprising that her parents decided that Marie Therese would finish her education at St. Joseph Academy in Adrian. She graduated on June 3, 1946.

Sister Jean Irene McAllister was in Sister Marie Therese’s class at the Academy. At the wake, she inserted a note of humor when she said:

I’m wearing this shirt in memory of our Academy days, when we wore those old-fashioned uniforms and the stockings they gave us were baggy at the knees. When we stood at attention, they stood at ease.

Although Sister Marie Therese wrote that the two years she spent at St. Joseph Academy were rather difficult after all her years in public schools, she loved and admired her Dominican teachers. Within a short time of graduation, on June 23, eighteen years of age, she entered the postulate, a member of a large group of young women who were eager to serve God as Dominicans.

She received the habit and her religious name (Sister Martin Joseph) on December 30, 1946, and professed her first vows on December 31, 1947. That was a very cold, icy winter, making it necessary for the newly professed sisters to wait a few days before going out on mission.

All of Sister Marie Therese’s ministry years were in Michigan, most of them with middle-grade students. She and another newly professed sister, Sister Marie Assumpta (Mildred Huber) were assigned to teach at St. Alphonsus School in Dearborn. On the Saturday after profession, they boarded the train, and were met by Sisters Leonita Noetzel and Rose Norine Gauther, who took them in a taxi to St. Alphonsus convent.

Sister Marie Therese wrote humorously:

The taxi driver took us to the door, and kept our luggage until he was paid. We arrived COD. Sister Francis Joseph Wright tried to hug both of us at the same time. We were both bigger than she was, so her arms weren’t long enough to go around us both.

The sisters were at the supper table, and we were introduced to them. I was introduced as Sister Martin Therese instead of Sister Martin Joseph. Sister Martin Therese [Grantham] was seated at the table, and she said that couldn’t be. That was cleared up right away. There were three of us with the name “Martin”—small, medium (myself), and large.

The two newly professed sisters had arrived on a Saturday night, and were in school on the following Monday. Both were replacing sisters who were ill. Since these two inexperienced teachers could not be assigned to the ill teachers’ classes (Sister Marie Therese did not say why) there was some shifting of grades, a source of unhappiness to the sisters who had been teaching those grades. “They weren’t too happy to be giving up their classes to greenhorns.” Sister Marie Therese ended up with sixth grade, and Sister Marie Assumpta, with fifth grade. Sister Marie Therese remained at St. Alphonsus for the second semester of the 1947-48 school year.

She spent the next year-and-a-half at St. Joseph in Wyandotte, then in January 1950 she was changed to St. Jude in Detroit. There she remained until January 1957, which she described as “seven happy years.” These happy years were marred by a time of sorrow in January 1953, when her father died. A happier occasion occurred in July 1955 when, as a result of summer study, she received her bachelor’s degree from Siena Heights College (now University) with a major in home economics and minors in English and mixed science.

January 1957 saw her at St. Joseph in Port Huron, taking the place of a sister who was leaving. She remained there until 1963, when she asked to be changed at the regular time, rather than in the middle of the year.

Beginning with August 1963, she spent a year in her native “thumb” of Michigan, at St. John in Ubly. She wrote, “We were four sisters in a beautiful ranchstyle house.” After a year she returned to St. Jude for three years. Then she spent ten years at St. Lawrence in Utica.

She wrote, “My mother was in a nursing home in Port Huron, and I had had three surgeries, so I needed to let up some.” In 1977 she took a position as religious education coordinator at St. Mary in Port Huron, close to the nursing home, and visited her mother every week. She remained in this position for seven years, until 1984, happy to be near her mother who died in 1981. She had spent summers studying at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and received a certificate in theology in 1984.

In 1984 she returned to St. Lawrence in Utica, and spent a year there as a member of the staff. When she left in 1985, she went to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Emmett, where she served for eleven years as religious education director. It was there that she and Sister Celeste Beauregard became fast friends. She wrote:

Sister Celeste Beauregard left retirement to come and live with me… She thought no sister should have to live alone. She worked with the senior sisters and took communion to the sick in their homes. I helped her with both. On communion calls, we sometimes went as far as forty-six miles.

You couldn’t find better people anywhere. They made us feel welcome and wanted. Those were very happy and productive years.

Sister Marie Therese’s health problems were of long standing. Her record shows that she received medical attention and rested as early as some of the summers in the 1960s. Now open-heart surgery was necessary. Following it, in 1996, she and Sister Celeste decided to retire to Adrian. She celebrated her Golden Jubilee, also in 1996, but in a limited way because of the surgery. Before settling in Adrian, she and Sister Celeste took a trip to Alaska. She wrote:

Oh, so many mountains! Growing up in Michigan and being missioned in Michigan all my life, I never saw mountains until we went to Colorado for our fortieth anniversary, and on this trip to Alaska. I would like to put a mountain in our backyard!

Upon their return, she and Sister Celeste settled into the Dominican Life Center/Maria. She wrote, “We have completed fourteen years of living together (in 1998).” She and Sister Celeste were together daily. Although in a wheelchair, Sister Marie Therese was not idle. She belonged to the Motherhouse Chapter and served as a mission group delegate. She was also elected a delegate-at-large to the General Chapter of 1998.

Sister Celeste’s death in 2005 brought a great period of grief into Sister Marie Therese’s life. On October 1, 2008, the feast of St. Therese, God took her to eternity where she joined her parents, her brothers Jerry and Joseph, other relatives, and Sister Celeste.

Sister Marie Therese’s wake-remembrance service was held on October 3 in St. Catherine Chapel. Present were her brothers, Clem, Tom, and Bob; several nieces and nephews, and her many Dominican friends.

Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of the Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, opened the service, welcomed those present, and summarized Sister Marie Therese’s life and ministry.

Sister Marie Therese had many talents, among them sewing and needlework. She kept her sewing machine and yarn in the hope that she would be able to get back to doing some of her creative work. She did, in fact, make slacks for herself after she lost weight. The fact that her health declined and she was not able to continue her craft work was hard for her.

She had numerous health problems, suffering with back problems, heart problems, and a hip infection. Despite these, she maintained her sense of humor and her smile. She tried to save her brothers from her physical problems; … of course, they wanted to be kept abreast of how she was. They were very faithful in visiting Sister.

She had great faith in Father Solanus and voiced the hope to be his third miracle, hoping that she would be able to get back to walking. … Only a couple of weeks ago, she appeared to be declining, and within days was back in the solarium… However, on Sunday her condition changed. … On Wednesday, October 1, she passed away peacefully at the age of eighty and in the sixty-first year of her profession as an Adrian Dominican Sister.

Sister Jean Irene McAllister, a member of her crowd and a good friend, said:

Every person is a gift from God. Some come in ornate wrapping paper, some come in ordinary wrappings. Sister Marie Therese was genuine, unpretentious. She often talked of her family and her admiration for her mother. She was a hard worker, a gifted seamstress and craft maker. She was a loyal friend and remembered our crowd daily in her prayers. Her suffering lasted for many years, but now she is at peace.

She has been talking about “going home.” May her family, friends, and her favorite intercessor, Father Solanus, welcome her.

Sister Mary Alice Naour also shared memories.

When Sister Marie Therese came to Adrian, I was her chaplain, and also Sister Celeste’s chaplain. What I’ll always remember about Sister Marie Therese is her prayerfulness. She never missed our four-o’clock Vespers unless she was very sick. She never missed the Rosary. She and Sister Celeste prayed together for everyone.

She missed so much being a minister of the Eucharist. Because of being in the wheelchair, it was difficult. We helped her participate in the bringing up of gifts, and that made her very happy. I will not forget her place in the wheelchair, right next to the organ and piano, as long as she could come down.

Father Martin Iott, OP, was the presider and homilist at Sister Marie Therese’s funeral liturgy on October 4. Some thoughts from his homily are:

Sister Marie Therese heard the voice of God and experienced the love of God. She held on to hope in spite of what happened in her life.

Once we have discovered that God loves us, there is nothing that can stop God from accomplishing what He wants in our lives. God sustained her through changes, loneliness, and pain. She became a preacher of prayer here in Maria. She witnessed to hope, especially through her last years, ups and downs, joys and griefs. She knew that her life was in the hands of the Shepherd God.

The empty space next to the piano and organ will recall Sister Marie Therese to the minds of the friends who loved her. Although it was not God’s will that she be Father Solanus’s third miracle here on earth, they know that she is now in a place where she is no longer wheelchair-bound.