One hundred and eighty-five years ago, Blessed Mother Theresa Gerhardinger established a community of women religious dedicated to 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 – particularly those from the poorest towns and villages – as the vital service their community would offer. To read more about SSND history, click here.
In honor of this anniversary, our province took on the daunting challenge of telling 185 stories about our sisters, the history of SSND, mission work our Sisters have undertaken, and memories from alumni of SSND schools. The generosity of those who shared their stories with us enabled us to meet this challenge, with the 185th story of this project going live on January 1. What a wonderful way to start the new year!
In finishing this project, though, we realized there are still many, many more wonderful stories out there to tell. So we are going to keep telling them. If you have a story to tell that you have not yet shared, please reach out to us. And keep checking back here weekly for new stories.
Do you feel called to share your story?
If you are an SSND, we would love to hear more about how you were called to be a Sister, what kind of ministries you have worked in during that time, or what you are doing now in Jesus’ name. If you were taught by SSNDs, or if your life was otherwise positively influenced by them, we would love to share your stories as well. To find out more click here
185 Stories by and about Sisters
These stories will be shared here and on our social media. Please join us in this project and in celebrating the lives of the amazing women who have answered God’s call to become School Sisters of Notre Dame.
You can email your story or questions to comm@amssnd.org. Photos to accompany your stories are greatly appreciated, but please make sure you have permission to use those photos before you share them with us.
