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School Sisters of Notre Dame

Female Roman Catholic religious congregation

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The School Sisters of Notre Dame are known by the abbreviation "SSND" and are not to be confused with another teaching order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDdeN), which was founded in France.

Founding and growth

The School Sisters of Notre Dame developed from the Canonesses of Saint-Augustin of the Notre-Dame Congregation, founded by Peter Fourier and Alix Le Clerc in the Duchy of Lorraine in 1597 for the free education of poor girls. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several convents of the congregation were established in Germany.

Karolina Gerhardinger commenced her training as a lay teacher at the local monastery of the Canonesses Regular of Notre Dame in Ratisbon. She developed her skills as a teacher at the monastery until it—like all monastic communities—was closed in 1809 after the Napoleonic army had occupied Bavaria. By 1812 she had secured a teaching accreditation and began teaching at a girls school in Regensburg. In 1815 she asked Bishop of Regensburg, Georg Michael Wittmann, for guidance on entering the religious life, although she was unable to pursue this religious calling at that time. However, she continued to teach at the school from 1816 until 1833.

The congregation was founded in Bavaria in 1833, during a time of poverty and illiteracy under Bishop Wittmann of Ratisbon and Father Job of Vienna. While retaining the essential features of the rule and constitutions given by Peter Fourier, they widened the scope of the Sisters' educational work. Its founder Karolina Gerhardinger, known by the religious name of Mary Theresa of Jesus, formed a community with two other women in Neunburg vorm Wald to teach the poor.

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. In 1847, Blessed Theresa and five companion sisters traveled to the United States to aid German immigrants, especially girls and women. That year the sisters staffed schools in three German parishes in Baltimore, Maryland: St. James, St. Michael, and St. Alphonsus, as well as opened the Institute of Notre Dame, a private school for German girls. Eventually, the congregation spread across the United States and into Canada, ultimately forming eight North American Provinces.

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