The congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame came
to life when God’s call found an answer in the hearts of people strong in
faith, farseeing in vision, and courageous in action. The congregation
continues today in the mysterious interaction of divine call and human
response.
Our charism flows from our spiritual heritage, especially the gifts of St.
Augustine, who formed a community to be of one heart and one soul in God,
seeing in the Trinity the basis, source and goal of all community. It is in
this spirit of Augustine that the first rules are framed.
Blessed Alix Le Clerc and St. Peter Fourier gave a new direction to religious
life, insisting that the ministry of furthering the interests of education
be integral to the community which they founded and named it the Congrégation
Notre Dame - Canonesses of
St. Augustine. Alix and her companions pronounced their first religious vows on
Christmas Day 1597 at Mattaincourt in Lorraine.
Though its roots lie deep in the past, the congregation traces its actual
beginning to October 24, 1833, when Caroline Gerhardinger and two other
women began a common religious life in Neunburg vorm Wald, Bavaria. Their
action was inspired by an apostolic spirituality destined to shape their own
lives and profoundly affect those of many others.
Political and religious circumstances stemming from the Enlightenment and
the French Revolution had created in 19th century Germany a desperate
educational situation with far-reaching effects on church and society. The
rationalists’ insistence on the primacy of reason weakened appreciation for
Christian education; the confiscation of church possessions by the state led
to the suppression of many convent schools and made it virtually impossible
for young girls to receive even a basic education.
The closing of the convent school of Stadtamhof/Regensburg, conducted by the
Canonesses of Notre Dame, opened Caroline Gerhardinger, then a pupil, to a
growing awareness of the critical nature of the situation. Following the
advice of Father Michael Wittmann of Regensburg, Caroline and two companions
agreed to be prepared to be teachers in the school for girls in Stadtamhof
which had been continued as a parish school. Under Wittmann’s spiritual
guidance, Caroline gradually recognized God’s call to her. She shared Father Wittmann’s concern for a new beginning of religious life and his resolve to
found a religious community which would help remedy the social situation
through education. In their vision, the renewal of society depended on the
Christian family in which the mother, the first educator, had a key role.
Thus, they chose the Christian education of girls as the vital service her
community would offer. Their first concern was for poor girls in small towns
and villages.
When Bishop Wittmann died suddenly during the crucial time of foundation,
Caroline, in unshaken trust in God’s providence, and supported by a friend
of Wittmann, Francis Seba
stian Job, dared to establish the congregation in
1833. Having taken the name of Mary Theresa of Jesus, she used as the basic
rule of her congregation that of the Canonesses of Notre Dame. This order,
begun by Blessed Alix Le Clerc and St. Peter Fourier in 1597, took as its
inspiration the rule of St. Augustine. The life of Mother Theresa’s young
congregation was decisively shaped by the Spirit of the Constitution of the
Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame written by Francis Sebastian Job.
Mother Theresa’s spirituality deeply influenced the spirituality of her
congregation. Her love for God, nourished and strengthened by her devotion
to the Blessed Sacrament, enkindled the burning desire of her life: to know
him and to do his will. Her longing to honor God and her concern for the
kingdom were the ruling and pervading principles which dictated all her
efforts. She grounded her community in poverty in order to reach the poor
and dedicated it to Mary, in whom she found a model for herself, her
sisters, and the young girls she served. In education she insisted on the
absolute necessity of the example of the educator and on the integration of
instruction and character development.
The structure of her congregation flowed from her perception of the needs of
those she served as well as those of her sisters. By sending sisters in
two’s and three’s to reach people in rural areas, she departed from the
contemporary pattern of large, formal monasteries. In order to maintain a
common spirit, direction, and goal among the sisters, among the branch
houses, and later among the provinces, she insisted on a unifying central
government in her congregation. In contrast to established precedents and
the prevailing spirit of the times, she was convinced that a woman could
better understand and, therefore, direct and motivate her sisters. When her
views about the government of her congregation were misunderstood, her trust
in God and her deep loyalty to the church sustained her in the suffering she
endured.
The paschal mystery marked Mother Theresa’s entire life. An especially
intense experience of it was her struggle to obtain approbation of her
congregation and her joy when Pope Pius IX approved the constitution of the
Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1865.
The young congregation, too, knew death and resurrection as integral to its
life. Extreme poverty characterized its early decades; in those years the
sisters also experienced contempt and abuse from those who could not accept
their values. In the 1860's sisters suffered from wars in Europe and
America. Political pressures led to the expulsion of the sisters of
Westphalia and Silesia from their native lands in the 1870's.
Mother Caroline Friess, appointed by
Blessed Theresa to carry out the
mission of the congregation in North America, perceptively read the signs of
the times, risking innovative response to the needs of the new world.
Through courageous leadership Mother Caroline adapted the congregation to
the life on another continent.
At the same time, new life and growth came to the congregation. Appreciated
and supported by hierarchy and laity, it spread from Bavaria to eleven
countries of Europe and North America. At the time of Mother Theresa death
in 1879, more than 2,500 School Sisters of Notre Dame were living religious
life according to her spirit. They met the needs of their time by educating
girls, principally in elementary schools but also in orphanages, day
nurseries, and industrial schools. They trained future teachers and
pioneered in the development of kindergartens. For girls who were factory
workers, they established homes and provided night schools where these girls
could receive basic education.
In his eulogy at Mother Theresa’s funeral, Monsignor Adalbert Huhn described
her attitude toward the growth of the congregation: When she spoke of her
order, she called it, with emphasis and reverence, the work of God. . . .
her love for souls impelled her to go from one end of Europe to the other –
from one continent to another; the salvation of souls was the inspiration of
all her endeavors. . . . It was not the greatness of the number of her
sisters that delighted her, but their inward transformation to the image and
likeness of the crucified Son of God. . . .
In deep gratitude and with prophetic insight, he prayed: "Father in heaven,
. . . we thank you that you have given to the family of the Poor School
Sisters such a blessed beginning; may this beginning be the pledge of its
growth to perfection."
References
1. Prologue: John 2:5, Jerusalem Bible.
2. Mission 1: John 17:18, 21. Jerusalem Bible.
3. Mission 5: Letter of Mother Theresa No. 2277, October 4, 1856.
4. Conclusion 49: Letter of Mother Theresa No. 714, May 30, 1847.
5. Origins of our Congregation: Life of Reverend Mother Mary Theresa of
Jesus Gerhardinger by Reverend Frederick Friess, pp. 329, 331.
