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

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1866

pg 497            Unfortunately the provisional government was destined to be 
             prolonged until almost everybody was beginning to lose patience 
             and hope.  The whole Congregation had necessarily to suffer, 
             although the Mother House, where the ex-Superior General resided, 
             naturally suffered much more from this state of things than any of 
             the other houses.
                  Finally on September 12th of the following year official news 
             was received at Sainte Croix that he [the Superior General], had 
             arrived at Marseilles, and everybody began to breathe more 
             freely.
                  Immediately after the General Chapter F. Sorin proceeded to 
             Rome with the Reverend Procurator General as deputies to lay the 
             acts of the Chapter before the Holy See.  He remained there three 
             weeks, and obtained from the Holy Father, propria manu, the 
             approbation of the Ave Maria, in five lines, and the blessing of 
             the crown of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.