Sisters of Notre Dame Come to America, 1840

On this day in 1840, eight Sisters of Notre Dame from Namur, Belgium, came to Cincinnati, Ohio, at the request of Bishop John Purcell. They came to America with the idea of evangelizing the Native peoples, but they soon set up shop in Cincinnati, where they opened their first school in January 1841. By 1849 they had nine schools in the city. From Cincinnati they spread elsewhere: Dayton, Toledo, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. Wherever they went they set up tuition free schools for the children of immigrants. One of their schools developed into what is now Trinity University in Washington. They took on the teaching of boys in 1914. In addition to their class work, they opened lending libraries, taught night classes for adults, and opened a school for the deaf. In all their goal was, in the words of their foundress St. Julie Billiart, to “teach people what they need for life.”
(Adapted from the community website)