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

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1880

pg 508       credited to the protection of Heaven.  
                  One thing, perhaps, will appear evident more than any other, 
             viz: that the Blessed Virgin has taken this mission of the Holy 
             Cross in America under her special protection from its very 
             incipiency throughout.  To me the evidences of the fact /if I can 
             use the only expression I know to convey my conviction/ are such, 
             so numerous and palpable, that, when I think of them, Notre Dame 
             and what has sprung from it stands beyond doubt the work of our 
             glorious and Immaculate Virgin Mother.

                            5th of August.  Our Lady of the Snow
             
                  Long before we left France for this New World, I remember 
             very distinctly that there was in my mind a predominant thought 
             and in my heart a special, and abiding desire, which I might call 
             a hidden passion, viz: to devote my time somewhere, to consecrate