Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1858

pg 330       institute during fifteen years.  This work has required time, but 
             he feels no regret at having thus employed it, since he has thus 
             furnished himself with the sure means of putting the truth in its 
             full light--a matter of importance--and of disabusing those that 
             seek only the truth.
                  Let it be permitted us to remark here, that at his arrival in 
             South Bend in November 1842, in the twelve counties entrusted to 
             him by the Bishop of Vincennes and Detroit, F. Sorin found only a 
             handful of poor Catholics, scattered over a tract of more than one 
             hundred miles in diameter, containing hardly one hundred and fifty 
             families in all, most of whom had been left entirely without 
             spiritual aid for three years or more.  For three years there had 
             been no priest living at South Bend, the nearest being in Chicago, 
             and he visited some places from time to time.
                  Add to this number about as many poor Catholic Indians 
             scattered over the same territory, and you will have an idea of 
             the mission of Notre Dame.  Then it excited only pity; none though