NOTRE DAME
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NOTRE DAME
kindergarten, and the courses are afterwards gratled
as elementary, model, commercial, academic, and col-
legiate. The firsl college opened was in Nova Scotia
at Antigonish, atiiliated with the university for young
men in the same jilucr: since the early years of its
foundation it has annually seen a number of Bachelors
of Arts among its graduatinsj; students. In liKMt ihe
Notre Dame Ladi<'s' CollcLre. in attiliation with Laval,
wa.sinaugvn-ated in Montreal. The line ails aic taught
in all the secondary schools and acailiinirs. wlnlc in
the larger and more central houses these biarichcs are
carried lo greater i)erfection by competent iirofessors.
The t<'aching from the very elements is in conformity
with the best methods of the day.
De Casson, llialuire lie Montrtal, 1 (1673), 62 aq.; Faillon, Vie lie la Shut Bourgeoya, II (18S3) ; Ransonnet, Vie de la Sxur Boxirgeoys (1728); de AIontgolfier, Vie de la Sceur Bourgeoys (1818); Sausseret, /" Eloije Hislorigue de la Saur Bourgeoys (1S64); Idem, 2'"' Eloge Hintorique de la Sceur Bourgeoys (1879); .Sister of the Conoreoation, The Pearl of Troyes (1878), 338- 08; Drummond, The Life and Times of Marguerite Bourgeoys (la07).
Sister St. Euphhosine.
II. — Congregation op Notre-Dame de Sign, a religious institute of women, founded at Paris in May, 1S43, by Marie-Theodore and Marie-Alphonse Ratis- bonne (q. v.). Theodore, at that time sub-director of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Victories, se- cured from Gregory XVI permission to work among the Jews for their conversion. His brother Marie- Alphonse was equally zealous and they established a congregation of sisters under the patronage of Our Lady of Sion, with its mother-house at Paris. The new body received warm encouragement from Mgr Affre, Mgr Sibour, and Cardinal Fornari, and, on 15 January, 1847, Pius IX showed his approbation of the work by granting many indulgences to the institute. Foundations were made in the Holy Land, the chief being the convent, orphan asylum, and school, near the Ecce Homo arch in Jerusalem. That of St. John's in the Mountains was founded from it. Connected with the orphanage in Jerusalem under the patronage of St. Peter are schools of art and manual-training. At the Ecce Homo there are 170 pupils, Jews, Mo- hammedans, and Greek schismatics, besides 100 day scholars.
There are foundations in London and also at Rome, Grandbourg near Versailles, Trieste, Vienna, Prague, Galatz, Bucharest, Jassy, Constantinople, Kadi-Koi, etc. At Munich the " Sionsverein " for the support of poor children in Palestine was founded in 1805 through the instrumentality of Baroness Th6rese von fiumpjienberg and Hermann Geiger. The Sisters of Notre-Dame de Sion number 500, of whom fifty are at the Ecce Homo and St. John's, and seven at St. Peter's. They are directed spiritually by the Priests of Notre-Dame de Sion, a congregation of secular priests, which includes lay brothers. At St. Peter's in Jerusalem, there are six priests, nine lay brothers, and some scholastics. The (jerman settlement of Tabgha, on the Lake of Genesareth, is in charge of a priest of Notre-Dame de Sion, assisted by a Lazarist. There is a foundation of Priests of Notre-Dame de Sion at Constantinople.
Heimbccher, Die Orden und Kongrsgationen, III (Paderborn, 1908), 391; H£ltot, Diet, des ordres religicuz.
Blanche M. Kelly.
III. — Institute of Notre-Dame de Namttr, founded in 1803 at Amiens, France, by Bl. Julie Bill- iart (b. 1751; d. 1816) and Marie-Louise-Frangoise Blin de Bourdon, Countess of Gezaincourt, in religion Mother St. .loseph (b. 17.56; d. 1838). The formation of a religious congregation for the education of youth was the result of a formal order to Blessed Julie in the name of God by Pere Jo.seph Varin, S.J. , who discerned her fitness for such an enterprise. Mile Blin de Bour- don offered to defray the immediate expenses. At Amiens, 5 August, 1803, they took a house in Rue
Neuve, the cradle of the institute, with eight orphans,
children confided to them by P^re Varin. In the
chai)el of this house, at Mass on 2 February, 1803, the
two foundresses and their postulant, Catherine Du-
cIk'iIcI of Reims, made or renewed their vow of
chastity, to which they added that of devoting them-
selves to the Christitm education of girls, fiu'ther i)ro-
posing to train religious teachers who sho\ild go where-
ever their services were asked for. Victoire Leleu
(Sister Anastasie) and Justine Gargon (Sister St.
John) joined the institute this year and with the
foundresses, made their vows of religion 15 October,
1804. The Fathers of the Faith who were giving
missions in Amiens sent to the five sisters women and
girls to be jirepared for the sacraments. Bl. Julie was
successful and on the invitation of the missioners con-
tinued to :L,'<si.st them in the neighbouring towns.
Keturning to .\miens, the foundress devoted her- self to the formation of her little community. She taught the young sisters the ways of the Ki)iritual life. To attain the double end of the institute, the found- ress first secured teachers, among whom were Fathers Varin, Enf.antin and Thomas, the last-named a former professor in the Sorbonne, and Mother St. Joseph Blin, to train the novices and sisters.
The first regular schools of the Sisters of Notre-Dame were opened in August, 1806. Pupils flocked into the class-rooms at once. The urgent need of Christian education among all classes of society in France at that time, led the foundresses to modify their original ])lan of leaching only the poor and to open schools for the children of the rich also. Simplicity, largeness of mind, and freedom from little feminine weaknesses, marked the training given to the higher classes. But the poorest and most forsaken were ever to remain the cherished portion of the institute, and the unwritten law that there may be in every mission free schools without pay schools, but not pay schools without free schools, still remains in force. Mother Julie did not require her postulants to bring a dowry, but a modest pension for the years of probation; a sound judgment, good health, aptitude for the work of the congregation, a fair education; these, with unblemished reputation, good morals, and an inclination to piety, were the qualifications she deemed indispensable. Within two years forty postulants were received.
The community lived under a provisional rule, based upon that of .St. Ignatius, drawn up by Mother Julie and Father Varin, which was approved in 1805 by Mgr Jean-Frangois Demandolx, Bishop of Amiens. The necessary recognition was accorded on 10 March, 1807. Though time and experience brought addi- tions to those first constitutions, none of the funda- mental articles have been changed: the sole exterior labour in the institute is the instruction of youth in schools in concert with the parochial clergy; a mother-house, a superior-general who appoints the local superiors, decides upon foundations and assigns their revenues, visits the secondary houses and moves subjects from one to another when necessary; one gratle only of religious, no cloister, but no going out save for necessity, no \'isiting to relations, friends, or public buildings. It was for these points that the Blessed Foundress laboured and suffered, as the sub- stance of the constitutions, solemnly approved by Gregory XVI in 1844, shows.
The first branch hou.se was established at St. Nicho- las, near Ghent. At the departure of these five mis- sionaries, 15 December, 1806, the religious habit was assumed by the congregation, a private, religious ceremony, still unchanged. The taking of vows is also private, but takes place during Mass. St. Nicholas, as well as Mother Julie's five other foimdations in France, were all temporary. Later and jiermanent foundations were made in Belgium: Namur, 1807, which became the mother-hou.se in 1809; .lumet, 1808; St. Hubert, 1809; Ghent, 1810; Zele, 1811; Gembloux
