ND Photo Gallery: front01

With empty hands and empty pockets Sorin had agreed to establish in this wilderness a Catholic University. But with what? With an unshakeable faith that she under whose patronage he had begun his work would somehow in her own time accomplish it.
-- Rev. E. Burke, CSC
The fire was my fault, he concluded. I came here as a young man and founded a university which I named after the Mother of God. Now she had to burn it to the ground to show me I dreamed too small a dream. Tomorrow we will build it bigger and, when it is built, we will put a gold dome on top with a golden statue of the Mother of God so that everyone who comes this way will know to whom we owe whatever great future this place has.
-- 1879 Fire, Father Edward Sorin, CSC, Founder .
As he lay in his reclining chair he could turn his head and see the golden dome and Our Lady surmounting it. He scribbled a note in his shaky hand: "This morning, I have been looking at Our Lady. I am now as certain as it is possible to be certain that with the aid of Our Blessed Mother, under whose image we are living, our University will prosper.
-- 1893 During Father Sorin's last days.