HOLY
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HOLY
Dame University, and the Laetare Medal, its history
dates back to 1842, synchronizing during its first lialf-
century with the life-story of Father Edward Sorin,
its founder. A brief word should perhaps be said of
two institutions which serve as splendid memorials of
Notre Dame's founder and of the spirit animating
the Congregation of Holy Cross as a whole. The
first is the "Ave Maria", a weekly magazine devoted
to the honour of the Blessed Virgin. E.stablishod in
1865, and steadily growing in importance and pre.s-
tige, it has attained a circulation practically coexten-
sive with the English-speaking world. The second
is the Laitare Medal. An adaptation of the papal
custom of conferring the Golden Rose, this gold
medal is annually presented by the University of
Notre Dame, on the mid-Lenten Svmday, to an
American lay Catholic distinguished in literature,
science, art, commerce, philanthropy, sociology, or
other field of beneficent activity. The first recipient
of the La-tare Medal (1883) was John Gilmary .Shea;
the latest (1909) was Frances Christine Fisher Tier-
nan, the novelist who has achieved notable distinc-
tion as Christian Reid. Notre Dame has been tried by
cholera, fire, financial stringency, and multifarious
other hardships, but the spirit of its founder was per-
petuated in his successors, and its growth has been
uniformly progressive. In 1842, Notre Dame du Lac
was a virgin wilderness whose only note of civilization
was a log chapel built by the proto-priest of the
United States, Father Stephen Badin; in 1909, the
name Notre Dame denotes a magnificent group of
more thart a score of handsome edifices: collegiate
church, central administration building of the uni-
versity, half a dozen residence halls, institutes of
science, technology, and electrical and mechanical en-
gineering, theatre, gymnasium, seminary, noviti-
ate, provincial residence, community house, printing
and publishing offices, and other accessory structures.
It is, moreover, the site of the mother-house of the
Congregation of Holy Cross, the residence of Father
Serin's successor as superior general.
Sorin, Circular Letters (Notre Dame, Ind., 1880); Moreau, Basile-Antoine Moreau et ses (Euvres (Paris, 1900); PoiRlEn, Le Pire Lcfebvre et L'Aeadie (Montreal, 1898); Corby. Memoirs of Chaplain Life (Chicago, 18931; Idem, Gulden Jubilee of Notre Dame University (Ctiicago, 1895).
Arthur Barry O'Neill.
Holy Cross, Sisters M.^rianites of. — The con- gregation of the Sisters Marianites of Holy Cross was founded in 1841, in the parish of Holy Cross, near Le Mans, Sarthe, France, by a priest of the same city, Basile-Antoine Moreau, b. at Laign^-en-Belin, Sarthe, France, 11 February, 1799; d. at Le Mans, 20 January, 1873. He was aided in this work by Li^'ocadie Gas- coin, who was born at Montenay, Mayenne, France, 1 March, 1818; and died at Le Mans, 29 January, 1900. The Rev. B. A. Moreau sent her -with three other young ladies to the superioress of the Good Shepherd house in Le Mans to prepare for the re- ligious life. After a year's instruction he had them assist in the educational establishment founded at Holy Cross, and permitted them to engage themselves to God by the triple vov/s of poverty, chastity, and obedience, pronounced 4 .August, 1841. Thus was formed the nucleus of a religious family of which Miss Gascoin became the first superior, under the name of Sister Mary of the Seven Dolours, in honour of the august patroness of the congregation, 15 September, 1844. Mgr. Fornari, papal nuncio at Paris, being informed of the projects of Rev. B. A. Moreau, ap- proved them.
The congregation, of which the rules were approved for ten years on trial, 19 February, 1867, by the Con- gregation of the Propaganda, received its final appro- bation on 28 October, 1885. It comprises two prov- inces; that of Louisiana, numbering 13 houses, and that of France, 10 houses; the missions of New York
are attached to the French province. There are two
novitiates, one in New Orleans, and the other in
Tottenville, Staten Island. This congregation, the
members of which take only simple vows, is governed
by a general superioress and six covmciUors, elected
every six years by the general chapter. The mother-
house is in Le Mans, France. The founder in group-
ing these souls of goodwill listened to their desire to
consecrate themselves to the care of the sick, the
education of youth, and the ch:irge of orphans. Mgr
de la Hailandirre, Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana,
begged Rev. B. A. Moreau to send him Sisters. This
request was granted, and the mission known as Notre
Dame du Lac was founded in 1843. Mgr Bourget,
Bishop of Montreal, Canada, in 1846, asked Rev. B. A.
Moreau, whom he had visited at Holy Cross, to send
him Sisters whom he might establish in his diocese.
Four religious were sent in 1847 and founded their
first house in the village of Saint Lawrence, near
Montreal. These two foundations, with their numer-
ous affiliations, declared themselves independent:
Indiana in 1867, Canada in 1883. The third founda-
tion was established in New Orleans in 1851. In the
same year, by direction of the cardinal prefect of
the Propaganda, a foundation was made at Dacca,
Bengal, India; owing to the climate, however, this
mission was abandoned. In 1861 the Sisters opened
in New York City an establishment, now known as the
Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul, where 221 orphans are
cared for. At present (1909) in the same city the
Sisters are in charge of an academy, a parochial school,
a day nursery; they serve in tlie French Hospital,
and have also tlie care of an academy in Tottenville,
Staten Island.
Sister Mary of St. Matthew.
Holy Cross, Sisters of the (Mother House, St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception, Notre Dame, Indiana). As an offset to the ravages of the French Revolution in the fields of religion and education, the Very Rev. Basil Moreau, professor of divinity in the Grand Seminaire and canon of the cathedral at Le Mans, France, formed a society of auxiliary priests in 1834. The following year his bishop, Mgr. Bouvier, named him superior of the Brothers of St. Joseph, who had been founded for school work in 1820 by the Rev. Jacques-Francois Dujarie. "The Association of the Holy Cross" was the outgrowth of these two distinct communities banded together under Abb6 Moreau for educational purposes in the Commune of the Holy Cross near Le Mans, where they started Holy Cross College in 1836. Several young women offering their assistance a little later. Father Moreau founded a sis- terhood "to co-operate with the other branches in their pious labours, and to labour themselves in a par- ticular manner for the benefit of the youth of their own sex". The first candidates received the habit of the Congregation of the Seven Dolours (as it was then called) from Father Moreau on 29 September, 1841, in the convent of the Good Shepherd. Under the direc- tion of its saintly superior. Mother Dorothea, they made their novitiate, and, at the end of a year, were admitted to the religious profession with the title, "Sisters of the Holy Cross". They were consecrated by their founder " to the heart of Mary pierced with the sword of grief". This has ever been the especial devotion of the sisters, and the image of Our Lady of Sorrows is a distinctive mark of their dress. They wear also in her honour a blue cincture and the chap- let of the Seven Dolours, which is recited in common every day.
In 1842 the sisters with Mother Seven Dolours took possession of their new convent at Holy Cross. About this time, the Rev. Edward Sorin and five brothers left the mother-house for the Indiana Missions at the request of the Bishop of Vincennes. It is evident from Father Sorin's letters that he expected the sis-
