Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is a Roman Catholic, four-year liberal arts women's college located northwest of Terre Haute, Indiana, between the Wabash River and the Illinois state line. There is also a small village of the same name located nearby. Most students and employees refer to the college as "The Woods." The athletic teams are nicknamed the "Pomeroys." Some students refer to themselves as "Woodsies." The college is associated with the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods and was founded as an academy for young women in 1841 by a French nun, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, who located at the site in October 1840. Saint Mother Theodore Guerin was canonized on October 15, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI, and became Indiana's first saint. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is the nation's oldest Catholic liberal arts college for women and one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States. In 1840, six Sisters of Providence left their convent in Ruillé-sur-Loir, France, on a journey to the wilderness of Indiana. Mother Theodore Guerin led the sisters on their journey.