School Sisters of Notre Dame
A religious community devoted to education.
In the United Sates they have conducted parish schools and orphanages
in numerous archdioceses and dioceses; they have also operated schools
and an orphanage in
the Diocese of Hamilton, Canada; an Indian school at Harbor Springs,
Michigan; a school for black children at Annapolis; and a deaf-mute institute
in Louisiana. Their principal boarding schools are: Baltimore,
Maryland; Fort Lee, New Jersey; Quincy, Illinois; Longwood,
Chicago; Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. Of their day and high schools
the most prominent are at Baltimore, Quincy, Longwood and Chatawa,
Mississippi.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame are a branch of the
Congregation of Notre-Dame founded in France, by St. Peter Fourier
in 1597. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several
convents of the congregations were established in Germany. The one
at Ratisbon was suppressed at the beginning of thenineteenth
century, but it was soon restored and remodeled to meet the needs of
modern times. Bishop Wittmann of Ratisbon and Father Job of Vienna
effected the change. While retaining the essential features of the
rule and constitutions given by St. Peter Fourier, they widened the
scope of the Sisters' educational work. In 1834 their community
consisted of one former pupil of the suppressed congregation,
Caroline Gerhardinger, who became first Superior General (Mother
Theresa of Jesus), and a few companions. The first
convent was in Neunburg vorm Wald, Bavaria. In 1839 they removed to
a suburb of Munich, and in 1843, into a former Poor Clare convent,
built in 1284,
and situated within the city limits. From this motherhouse in the
year 1847 six School Sisters of Notre Dame, on the invitation of
Bishop O'Connor of
Pittsburg, emigrated to America and landed at New York on 31 July.
One of the Sisters succumbed to the heat of the season and died at
Harrisburg, Pa., on the journey from New York to St. Mary's, Elk Co.,
Pa., destined to be the foundation-house in America. As St. Mary's
was not the place for a permanent location the mother-general
successfully negotiated to obtain the Redemptorists convent attached
to St. James' Church, Baltimore, Maryland By 3 November,
1847, three schools were opened. The second and last colony of
sisters, eleven in number, arrived from Munich, 25 March, 1848, and
foundations were made at Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Buffalo.
On 15 December, 1850, the motherhouse was transferred to
Milwaukee, with Mother Mary Caroline Friess as vicar-general of the
sisters in America.
With money donated by King Louis I of Bavaria, a house was bought;
this was absorbed later by Notre Dame Convent on St. Mary's Hill. On
2 January, 1851, St. Mary's parish school was opened and St. Mary's
Institute for boarding and day pupils soon afterwards. On 31 July,
1876, owing to its growth and extension, the congregation was
divided into two provinces; the Western,
with motherhouse at Milwaukee; and the Eastern with motherhouse at
Baltimore. A second division of the Western province became
necessary, and on 19 March, 1895, the Southern province was formed,
with its motherhouse in St. Louis.
Training of Members
To train members for their future life the
School Sisters have a candidature and a novitiate. The age for
admission into the candidature is sixteen to twenty-seven. After two
years' probation and study,
the candidate enters the novitiate, and two years later makes
temporal vowsand becomes a professed sister. The teaching sisters
meet at specified periods and at appointed houses of the order for
summer schools and teachers'
institutes.
The principal houses of the congregation in the Western province
are at Elm Grove, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, the home for aged, invalid,
and convalescent sisters; at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, founded in
1872, chartered in 1877, owing its origin to the generosity of Hon.
John Lawler (died on 24 Feb, 1891) and his son, Thomas C. Lawler, of
Dubuque, Iowa; at Longwood, Chicago, Illinois, established and chartered
in 1872. In 1903 the Legislature of Illinois granted the academy the
right to add a college courses and confer the degrees
of A.B. and Ph.B. In the Eastern province at Baltimore, Md.,
chartered in
1864, charter amended and powers of corporation enlarged in 1896.
The sisters began their work in Baltimore in 1848; owing to the
growth of their academy, more commodious quarters became necessary
and school, Notre Dame of Maryland, was transferred in 1873 to a
magnificent estate of seventy acres obtained in the suburbs. To meet
the continual demand for a more extensive curriculum for women, the
sisters of the convent applied in January, 1896, to the State for the
power of conferring academic degrees; this was granted by an Act of
the Legislature, 2 April, 1896, and the convent opened a college
with courses leading to the baccalaureate, an academy to prepare
students for the college, and a grammar and primary department.
There is a convent at Fort Lee on the Palisades of the Hudson,
Bergen County, N.J. where a residence was purchased by the sisters on
2 October, 1879, the school being opened on 21 November, 1879, and
chartered in June, 1890. In the Southern province the principal
schools are at Quincy, Illinois, founded on 28 December, 1859, as a
parochial school, the academy opened in September, 1867; at Chatawa,
Mississippi, founded on 15 October, 1874, a deaf-mute institution;
at Chincuba, La., founded by Canon Mignot, 1 October, 1890, given in
charge of
the sisters on 25 September, 1892.
Most prominent among the sisters in America was Mother M. Caroline
Friess, who died on 22 July, 1892, after being superioress of the
congregation for forty-two years. She was born near Paris, on 24
August, 1824, and was called at baptism by the name of Josephine. As
a child she was brought to Eichstadt, Bavaria, under the tutelage of
her uncle, Msgr. Michael Friess. Even
when only a novice she was given charge of very important schools in
Munich. She was one of the first to volunteer for the missionary
work in the New World, and emigrated to America in 1847. It soon
became evident that it was Sister Caroline who was to develop the
young congregation. She was appointed vicar of the mother-general in
America and later on elected at the first commissary-general. Under
her direction from four members in 1847, the sisterhood grew to two
thousand in 1892. Her life was written by Msgr. P.M.
Abbelen. Mother M. Clara Heuck was the third commissary-general.
When the Eastern province was established in 1876 Sister M. Clara
was appointed as novice mistress. Soon she became the superioress in
Baltimore and the second
mother provincial in the East, which position she held for three
terms, after which she was elected commissary-general at Milwaukee
on 13 May, 1899. She died at Milwaukee on 4 August, 1905, aged
sixty-two.
SR. MARY JOSEPHINE
Transcribed by Jim Holden
Dedicated to the SSND who taught me in grammar school
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI
Copyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York