April 24, 1844 - St Mary's College and
Academy - Cornerstone First Building Laid
The Bishop of Vincennes had
sent priests and brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross to northern Indiana in the early 1840's to
found a university. The Congregation responded by founding the University of
Notre Dame in 1842. The next year Notre Dame Founder Father Edward Sorin sent a
request to Father Basil Anthony Moreau for sisters to come to northern Indiana to found a boarding
school. In answer to the call, four Holy Cross sisters voyaged for forty days
across the ocean from Le Mans, France. The sisters arrived in
late May 1843. They established their school on April
24, 1844
in Bertrand, Michigan, just across the Indiana
State Line. At this school, they taught orphan girls and ministered to the sick
and poor. Mother Angela Gillespie, head of the school called Saint Mary's
Academy, moved the school to its present site near Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana in 1855.
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