Winter 2016 Cross Currents
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A Mission of Education With Friends Who Said, “Let Us Do T his Work With You.” 175 TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WINTER 2016 • VOLUME 12 / ISSUE 1 Within weeks of About The First Sisters Sister Rosine Matagne arriving in Cincinnati in The first Sisters were selected from At 27, she was the only one of the among the best teachers of the time. group who did not teach. Instead, she 1840, the eight pioneer Together they made up a complete ran the house. She served as cook and cleaned and cared for oil lamps and Sister Mary Ann Sisters opened the first faculty, trained in all the subjects taught in Notre Dame schools in Belgium. open fireplaces. She died in 1896, and Director of Development Notre Dame school in never found the time to learn English. Sister Louis de Gonzague this country. Sister Humbelina de Montal Dear Friend, At 30, she was the leader. She had a boundless zeal for the work of the At 28, she was a novice. She professed Our work in this country is just as our Foundress Julie Billiart asked Church in America and loved her vows on the ship enroute to America. Namur, Belgium –1838 An art teacher, her studio in Cincinnati of her Sisters in 1804. “Go out into the world,” she said. “Teach the adopted country. She persuaded the was a magnet for students. She returned children. All the children. American Bishop John Purcell congregation’s leadership to send stepped up to give the homily. He more Sisters to Cincinnati. By 1890, to Belgium and left the congregation. Julie said we must stand with those living in poverty — with the was in Europe that winter asking 80 arrived from Europe. Sister Louise Van der Schrieck forgotten, the abandoned, the struggling. And always make known the religious congregations to help him Sister Xavier Houba At 26, she was the only one who spoke goodness of God.” start schools in his new diocese of At 51, she was a brilliant teacher. In 1846, English. Five years after the Sisters Cincinnati. arrived, she was named superior she was sent to open a pioneer outpost This is the mission of Notre Dame. This is our life. of the Sixth Street community in After visiting our schools, he in Toledo where a second Notre Dame Cincinnati. In 1848, she was named We began our first 175 years in this country believing we had to do this was convinced the Notre Dame house was founded. After serving there but a few months she was stricken provincial leader of all Notre Dame work by ourselves, even though taking on such an important mission educational model was perfect for with typhoid fever and died. establishments east of the Rocky alone is not God’s way. Or the American way. the children in his city. The Bishop Mountains. faced the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sister Melanie Hamoir Quickly, friends began saying to us, “Let us do this work with you.” Namur in the chapel and began. At 43, she was born in Namur and Sister Marie Pauline Herreboudt That produced a spark and the transforming power to change hearts, At 24, she was a native of Belgium For several minutes he delivered an personally acquainted with our minds and lives. and the youngest. She taught music, eloquent message about the spiritual Foundress Julie Billiart. Sister Melanie including voice and instruments such destitution of southern Ohio. Then had 20 years of experience teaching in These are the blessings that flow from our mission — a mission that as harp, piano and guitar. She fell he contrasted it with the rich spiritual Europe before coming to America. She endures because it is shared. For decades. For centuries. died of cancer in 1854. victim to the cholera epidemic and abundance of Namur. died at 33. As we mark the 175th anniversary of our arrival in this country, we The impact was potent and he Sister Ignatia Walle acknowledge all that has been accomplished with our friends. At 30, she struggled to speak English. captured the hearts of our Sisters. Still, she taught all classes and prepared Eight were chosen from among the We are grateful and we look forward to the next 175 years. adults for the sacraments. She was volunteers. With you. eventually named superior of the . Sisters who were sent to Dayton and Sincerely, Columbus. Mary Ann Barnhorn, SNDdeN Director of Development [email protected] 513-679-8117 2 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 3 Together with friends... Through The Years: Our first friends in this country were the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Sisters of Charity, who invited our Sisters The first Notre Dame went on to teach in more than a to stay in their Cincinnati convent until school building in this dozen Cincinnati area schools. other arrangements could be made. country opened on They include our Sixth Street Permanent quarters for our Sisters turned January 18, 1841. It Academy, St. Mary, Holy Trinity, out to be the 30-room Spencer house on housed the Young St. Philomena, St. Paul, St. Sixth Street, where Procter and Gamble is Ladies Institute and Joseph, St. Augustine, St. headquartered today. Boarding School. In the LEGEND HAS IT: Anthony, St. Xavier, St. Ann, St. classical tradition, it Edward, St. Ludwig, St. Henry, The Sisters were able to buy the three story had a day school, a The choice not to include Notre Dame in St. George, St. Xavier building with the help of another friend — boarding school and a the name of our first school was deliberate. Commercial, Corryville Catholic, the home's owner. His niece had come to free school. On This is because our Sisters feared such a Sts. Peter and Paul, Our Lady of him with stories about the wonderful Sundays, our Sisters foreign sound could unnecessarily attract the Sacred Heart, St. James, St. "French Sisters" she had just met, and she also taught catechism the attention of the vocal anti-immigrant Michael, St. Richard of mentioned our need for a permanent home. classes there for about sentiment and Catholic opposition Chichester, Our Lord Christ the "They shall have mine," he said. He set a 1840 100 children. of the time. King, St. Susanna and St. Francis price about half the market value and de Sales. Our Sisters also opened offered to carry a mortgage for seven years. Mount Notre Dame in Reading The large home would become the first and Summit Country Day. Notre Dame convent and school in this country. Other friends helped the Sisters furnish the building. Local shopkeepers gave them home goods. One woman sent them a dozen chairs, while another supplied curtains for the windows. I Cncn 4 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province www.sndohio.org 5 I Dayt Expnng t t E Between 1849 and 1886, the Sisters established 26 convent homes and Through The Years: A group of our Sisters from Cincinnati headed to schools in Ohio and in the east, starting with Dayton. Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Massachusetts in 1849 to begin serving along the taught in 16 Dayton area schools. eastern seaboard. Within weeks we took charge of We went to Dayton at the request of the pastor of the first Catholic They include Emmanuel, Holy our first parochial school. Sister Agnes, one of the parish in town — Emmanuel Church. Five Sisters from Cincinnati took Trinity, St. Mary, Holy Rosary, St. founding Sisters, wrote of her experience: the two-day canal boat trip north. They moved into our first home, the Valandingham homestead on the corner of Franklin and Ludlow Streets, John, Holy Angels, Holy Family, a two minute walk from Emmanuel. St. Agnes, St. James, St. Rita, Immaculate Conception, St. At first, they had no furniture and very little food. The anti-Catholic Helen, Ascension and Carroll "Sister Jane and I found ourselves at the Church of the Holy sentiment of the time drastically limited school enrollment, so their High School. Sisters of Notre Redeemer in East Boston. The little yard between the new income came from the occasional parish "penny collection." But things Dame de Namur also built and church and the school was filled with children and their turned around, and by 1885 more than 1500 children were being taught owned Notre Dame Academy on mothers waiting for us. Sister Jane had a hundred pupils, by Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton. Franklin Street and Julienne High while I had fifty. A small house by the church was our home. In 1886, we opened our Notre Dame Academy at Franklin and Ludlow. School. Today, along with the After some time, a better convent was built and the old When we outgrew the original building, a new one was constructed in Society of Mary, Sisters of Notre house disposed of...it was raffled! Everybody was generous its place. It opened in 1927 and was called Notre Dame Academy de Dame de Namur own and operate and a considerable sum was realized." Julienne, or simply Julienne. Chaminade Julienne High School. LEGEND HAS IT: Soon enrollment exceeded 1000 students. More During the great flood of 1913, much of Dayton Sisters were sent to the area — to Lowell, Roxbury, was submerged and water reached the second Chicoppe, Salem, Lawrence and beyond — eventually floor of our convent home on Franklin Street. Our to teach along the East Coast. Sisters rescued 14 people from drowning by pulling them inside through the high convent windows. When the floodwaters began to recede, friends came by in boats with food and water for the Sisters, which they used to feed more than 600 stranded neighbors.