Our Sisters

We are excited to announce Sister Mary Jeanne Davidson has been awarded the 2017 Catholic Missions In Canada St. Joseph Award for outstanding missionary service.

Sister Mary Jeanne was nominated for this award by Archbishop Gerard Pettipas C.Ss.R. of the Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan for her ministry these past 15 years among the Aboriginal people of the Peace River area in Alberta, and then chosen as the awardee by our Tastes of Heaven Board of Directors.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame have a long history with St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Canada.

The sisters became involved with university in the 1960’s and established a women’s college. Several sisters also taught and lived on the university campus. Currently no sisters live on the campus but the SSND charism lives on at St. Jerome’s.

With a starlit sky above them, three sisters, ten candidates and 22 aspirants and boarders arrived at the new Canadian Motherhouse on February 14, 1927.

A statue of Our Lady of Grace, aglow with light high above the front balcony, was there with arms extended in welcome. At the front entrance stood the smiling Mother Baptist Klein, Sisters Othwina Tiefenbrun, Hilda Lienhardt, Humberta Schmitz and Pontia Diebolt. The group was led to the chapel where the first community sang, “Holy God We Praise Thy Name”.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame are getting in the holiday spirit with a Christmas-themed mannequin challenge.

The mannequin challenge, if you’re not familiar, is when people remain frozen in action (like mannequins) while a video is recorded.

At the December Assembly in Wilton, Ct. some sisters got together for a challenge. You’ll see sisters writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, and decorating a Christmas tree.    

Sister Miriam Therese Roncincke was awarded “Outstanding Volunteer for 2016” by RSVP Lifespan of Rochester, New York. RSVP is Lifespan’s volunteer program. It connects adults 55 and older to a wide range of interesting and rewarding volunteer experiences throughout the community.

Twice a week S. Miriam tutors second grade math to a pair of girls at the Notre Dame Learning Center. S. Evelyn Breslin with the Notre Dame Learning Center says S. Miriam always adds a special dimension to her lessons.

More than 25 years ago, Sister Mary Ann Hartnett stepped into a narrow row house on Baltimore Street in Upper Fell’s Point in Baltimore. In that unassuming building she helped begin Food for Thought, a tutoring and afterschool learning program that quickly transformed the lives of the children that walked through its front doors.

“I didn’t want to be a babysitting service,” Sister Mary Ann said. “We wanted to make some kind of a substantive difference in the educational lives of these kids.”       

Sister Maria Iannucillo, a provincial councilor of the Atlantic-Midwest Province, recently travelled to Poland for World Youth Day (WYD). In addition to the WYD events, Sister Maria was able to visit the Divine Mercy Shrine, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and go to Saint John Paul II’s hometown, Wadowice, with SSNDs from the Polish Province.

One of the gifts of her trip was spending time with other SSNDs at the Motherhouse in Opole.

Amazement and awe are two of the words Sister Maria Iannuccillo, SSND used to describe her trip to World Youth Day (WYD) in Krakow, Poland.

Walking the halls of Villa Assumpta in Baltimore is our new furry friend Romper.

Romper, a Labrador-Golden retriever mix, comes to Villa Asusmpta from Canine Companions for Independence. CCI provides assistance dogs free of charge. You might remember Newy, our previous dog; he also came to us from CCI.

The two year old ball of love is under the care of Sister Bernadette Walsh. She also took care of Newy and knew the sisters at Villa Assumpta needed a new companion.