The Sisters of Notre Dame

St. Julie Billiart founded the Sisters of Notre Dame with the aid of Françiose Blin de Bourdon in 1804. Motivated to make known God's goodness around the world, St. Julie set forth to establish the international, Catholic religious congregation that today comprises 1,820 sisters and 70 novices in 15 countries on five continents.

From the beginning, St. Julie and Françiose were convinced of education's power to help individuals lead lives of freedom and human dignity. Their passion for teaching and learning is enshrined in the constitution of the Sisters of Notre Dame, which cites education as "fundamental to bringing about the reign of God."

Many of the principles St. Julie and Françiose established for the Sisters of Notre Dame more than 200 years ago still characterize the Congregation to this day: a passion for education as "the greatest work on earth," a commitment to the poor, a global apostolic mission, a life that balances prayer and action, a focus on community building, and an abiding and deeply rooted trust in the goodness of God.

The first Sisters to come to America settled in Cincinnati in 1840. Nine years later, members of the Congregation came to Boston, where they taught at St. Mary School in the North End. From there, they established schools in Cambridge and Somerville and in mill towns such as Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Chicopee, and Springfield.

In 1919, the Sisters founded Emmanuel College, the flagship SND institution of higher education in North America. Today, members of the Emmanuel community continue to live out the mission of the Sisters of Notre Dame through education, social justice and longstanding tradition of service to the wider Boston community.