Our History in Brief

The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) began in Bavaria, Germany in 1833, under the leadership of Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger. 

The Beginnings in Canada

Mother Caroline Friess, superior of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in North America, was invited by Rev. Eugene Funcken CR to send Sisters to the orphanage in St. Agatha, Ontario. 

The Motherhouse

The Motherhouse was built in 1927 upon the Niagara escarpment, just outside of Hamilton in Ontario. 

Western Missions

In 1927, a boarding school in rural Leipzig, Saskatchewan was built.  This was the beginning of a continuous and blessed SSND presence in western Canada, providing opportunities for education in isolated rural areas. Sisters ministered at Leipzig for 50 years.

Northern Missions

In the 1970s and 80s, other missions were opened in native areas, including Nakina, Beardmore, Pine Point, Dryden, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Sioux Narrows and Grassy Narrows. 

England

After lengthy negotiations with the clergy, Mother Theresa accompanied six Sisters to Whitechapel, London, England in 1864 to teach the German and Irish immigrant children.

South America

In 1961, in response to Pope Paul VI's request to religious congregations to send missionaries to Latin America, four Sisters from the Canadian Province went to Bolivia. 

Over the years, SSNDs have served as principals in four public schools in the marginalized areas and have trained key teachers to take over these responsibilities.  Sisters were also involved in pastoral and catechetical ministry, health care, the formation of youth, women rural catechists, as well as attending to the elderly.

In 1965, three Sisters flew to Peru to establish a house on the dusty mountain foothills in Comas, on the outskirts of Lima.  Initially, the Sisters worked with the religion teachers in the nearby schools.  Soon they branched out into pastoral ministry, catechetics, leadership formation and midwifery.  They accompanied the people in their daily struggles for the basic necessities of life. 

In the early 1980s, Sisters opened houses in other impoverished areas outside Lima, including Canto Grande and Villa El Salvador. 

In 1996, the Sisters left the first Peruvian foundation in Comas to go into the rural area of Piura in the north of Peru to coordinate a rural education program, Fe Y Alegria No. 48 by forming a network of rural schools. Their goal: To promote a quality education with equal opportunities in the rural area of Malingas, in such a way as to contribute to improving the quality of life in an appropriate, human and just manner.

Africa

At present, one Canadian Sister works with other SSNDs, both native African and from the United States, as headmistress of a secondary school in Kiptere, Kenya.