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I Desire to Be Everywhere

I Desire to Be Everywhere, the biography of IHM Sisters’ co-founder Louis Florent Gillet, was written by the Rev. Gilbert Enderle, CSsR, PhD. Through extensive research spanning more than five years, Rev. Enderle brings Gillet to life as he artfully describes the many ministries and accomplishments of this frontier priest from Belgium.

Gillet came to Monroe, Mich., in 1843, serving as pastor of St. Mary Parish, as well as a circuit-rider for multiple outmissions north and southwest of Monroe. He recognized the need to educate the many immigrant girls in the area and sought women religious to teach them. Finding none, he approached Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, an Oblate Sister of Province, and together they founded the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM Sisters) in Monroe in 1845.

In the book’s foreward, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, CSsR, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., and former secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, notes, “The ‘greatest achievement’ of Gillet, the foundation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, forms part of the compelling story of the role of women in establishing the Catholic Church in America.”

To order

The book is available through the IHM Gift Shop. Call 734-240-8308 or email
ihmgiftshop@ihmsisters.org.