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| Autumn 1999 issue | . | Notre Dame's forgotten founders | |
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Who founded Notre Dame? If this were a test, your average Domer, and probably even some subway alums, would know enough to say AFather Edward Sorin.@For that they =d deserve partial credit.Others more familiar with Notre Dame history might state that it was Sorin and the six Holy Cross brothers who came with him to the United States from France in 1841. A quality guess, but wrong also. When Sorin arrived at the shores of Saint Mary =s Lake in 1842, he had seven Holy Cross brothers with him. But just two of them had been with him on the trip from France. The other five had been recruited in Indiana.If you didn =t know this, don=t feel bad. Even the Founders Monument near the Log Chapel doesn=t have it right. When the monument went up in 1906, it listed the names of Brothers Vincent, Joachim, Gatien (he spelled it Gatian when he wrote in English), Anselm, Lawrence and Francis Xavier (who had gone by Marie back in France). The monument said these were the six who set out with Sorin from the diocesan headquarters in Vincennes, Indiana, on November 16, 1842, and arrived at the future campus 10 days later.In fact, those were the six who had crossed the Atlantic with Sorin. Only Gatien and Francis Xavier were actually present on the day Notre Dame was founded. The other five brothers who made the November trip north C Peter, Francis, Patrick, Basil and William C were novices who had joined the Holy Cross order only months earlier at Sorin=s first outpost in Indiana, a novitiate, mission station and farm east of Vincennes dubbed Saint Peter=s.Two of the new brothers were carpenters, two farmers, and one was a cooper C good company for a journey into the wilderness to build a college. In addition, Francis Xavier was a cabinet-maker by trade. He also served as Notre Dame=s undertaker and was responsible for naming Cedar Grove Cemetery. Brother Gatien was a teacher and has been called the Aintellectual soul@ of Notre Dame during its first years.About five years ago, the Founders Monument was changed in an attempt to remedy the original inaccuracies. This wasn =t entirely successful. The new plaque, still in place, leaves out Francis Xavier, who, ironically, remained at Notre Dame longer than any of the other founding brothers. He died on campus in 1896 at age 76.Of the others, Brother Patrick died at Notre Dame in 1846. By 1850, the other five had all quit the order. Brother Gatien was among four Holy Cross brothers and three lay people dispatched by Sorin to California in 1850 in hopes of finding gold to offset Notre Dame =s mounting debts. The expedition was a failure, and Gatien quit the order while in California.C Phil Sicuso =99 |
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