University of Notre Dame

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 fledgling school in honor of Our Lady, in his native tongue, ?????????:???�????L?????????:?????????Universit??????�???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 April of 1879 when a disastrous fire destroyed the Main Building, which housed virtually the entire University. Saying ?????????:???�????If it were ALL gone, I should not give up,?????????:???�???Father Sorin employed 300 workers daily throughout the summer and rebuilt the structure that still stands today, topped by a gleaming Golden Dome.