About Notre Dame
History of the University
A Place Born of Imagination and Will
The University of Notre Dame began late on the bitterly cold afternoon of November 26, 1842, when a 28-year-old French priest, Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., and seven companions, all of them members of the recently established Congregation of Holy Cross, took possession of 524 snow-covered acres that the Bishop of Vincennes had given them in the Indiana mission fields.
A man of lively imagination, Father Sorin named his fledging school in honor of Our Lady, in his native tongue, “L’Université de Notre Dame du Lac” (The University of Our Lady of the Lake). On January 15, 1844, the University was thus officially chartered by the Indiana legislature.
Father Sorin’s indomitable will was best demonstrated in 1879 when a disastrous fire destroyed the Main Building, which housed virtually the entire University. Father Sorin willed Notre Dame to rebuild and continue its growth.
"I came here as a young man and dreamed of building a great university in honor of Our Lady," he said. "But I built it too small, and she had to burn it to the ground to make the point. So, tomorrow, as soon as the bricks cool, we will rebuild it, bigger and better than ever."
Driven by Pursuit of Excellence
The Congregation of Holy Cross, epitomized by Father Sorin, has been a crucial and formative influence on the University of Notre Dame’s academic enterprises. It has expanded from small bands of students in religious formation; manual labor training; and elementary, secondary, and classical collegiate schooling, through its emergence during the 35-year tenure of Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., as a national and international center of faith, community, and learning.
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., inaugurated in 2005, now stewards Notre Dame’s future.
In his inaugural address, he stated, “With respect and gratitude for all who embraced Notre Dame's mission in earlier times, let us rise up and embrace the mission for our time: to build a Notre Dame that is bigger and better than ever—a great Catholic university for the 21st century, one of the pre-eminent research institutions in the world, a center for learning whose intellectual and religious traditions converge to make it a healing, unifying, enlightening force for a world deeply in need. This is our goal. Let no one ever again say that we dreamed too small.”
About Notre Dame
Liberal Arts Education
Based on the ratio studiorum used by the Jesuits at St. Louis University, Notre Dame's early curriculum included four years of humanities, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy, plus offerings in French, German, Spanish, and Italian, and various forms of music and drawing. Learn more about Academics >
Research Achievements
Technology developed by professors James Reyniers and Morris Pollard at Notre Dame’s LOBUND Laboratory has positively impacted cancer treatments and the development of “statin” cholesterol-lowering drugs. Learn more about Research >
