Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C.: Founder of Notre Dame

As this portion of the tour begins, you should be standing in front of the statue of Father Sorin. Begin listening to the audio narration; in a few minutes, you will be directed to walk towards the golden-domed Main Building. Finish listening to the narration as you approach the Dome. When you have reached the front steps of the Dome and have finished this part of the tour, navigate to the next segment using the links below the map and images.

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Though he spoke little English, Father Edward Sorin was eager to leave France as a missionary to the American frontier.





The log chapel, as it appears today, is a replica of the only building that was standing here when Father Sorin and seven Holy Cross brothers arrived here on Nov. 26, 1842. Though the chapel was a humble outpost of missionary activity among the Native American population in the area, Father Sorin saw in it the beginning of a grand enterprise.





A glimpse of what remained of the Main Building after the great fire of April, 1879. Nearly everything that happened at Notre Dame took place in this building. Father Sorin promised to re-build it, bigger and better, and it was ready for students to arrive that fall.





Close-up of Mary atop the Golden Dome. She stands 19 feet tall and weighs 4,000 lbs. The statue and dome are coated by a thin layer of gold leaf--a fist-sized lump of real gold is spread thinly enough to cover it all. Father Sorin wanted everyone to know that all that happens at Notre Dame is thanks to the help of Our Lady.

Narrated Text

Everything about Notre Dame began with the vision and spirit of Father Edward Frederick Sorin de la Gaulterie, C.S.C. The statue before you depicts him as an older man, but he was only 28 years old when he arrived as a missionary priest from France in 1842.

He spoke little English, but had a deep conviction that he was to spend his life establishing a university here, in what was the wilderness of the American frontier. He had extraordinary hope, which grounded him in the conviction that God had inspired this undertaking and would see it through.

It was late in the day on November 26, 1842 when Father Sorin walked through here with seven religious brothers and looked over the nearby lake for the first time. It was the start of a bitterly cold winter, and the only shelter they had was a log chapel that had been the center of missionary activity among the American Indian tribes in the area. A replica of that chapel stands to the west of the quad before you.

Father Sorin sent a letter back to France soon after his arrival here. He spoke of the beauty of the lakes, which were frozen together in what looked like a single body of water. The letter described the lake covered with clean, white snow, and how the scene reminded him of the purity of Mary, the Mother of God. He named the institution Notre Dame du Lac—Our Lady of the Lake—in honor of Mary.

“Once more, we 
felt that Providence had been good to us, and we blessed God from the depths of our soul,” he wrote. “This college cannot fail to succeed. Before long, it will develop on a large 
scale. It will be one of the most powerful means for good in this country.”

In that first year, Father Sorin and those Holy Cross brothers erected two buildings—a bigger church and a school building. From the beginning, Father Sorin saw Notre Dame as a place where the intellect and faith worked together and enriched one another. This has always been Notre Dame’s ideal: to be a great university—a place for the exchange of ideas and knowledge—and to be a great Catholic institution with a mission to make God known, loved and served.

The architecture of campus still reveals this pursuit of excellence in the life of the mind and in the life of faith. The two most prominent buildings for miles remain the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, whose steeple is the highest point on campus, and the Main Building with the Golden Dome, under which people have lived and worked, taught and studied for close to 150 years. You can also see this pursuit in the figure of Father Sorin, himself, which stands before you. In one hand, he holds a cross. In the other, a book for study.

As you continue to listen to this tour, walk through the quad until you are standing in front of the golden-domed Main Building.

This Main Building has always represented the University. In part, the association was literal—since 1844, faculty and staff, students and administrators all lived here. It underwent several renovations in those early years, and it housed the dining hall, classrooms, recreation rooms, offices, an art museum, and a concert hall. In those early years, the Main Building was the University.

By 1865, the building had acquired a white dome with a plaster statue of Mary on top. From that point on, the Dome also represented the patroness of the University—Our Lady of the Lake, Notre Dame du Lac.

Then, in April of 1879, fire broke out in the Main Building. Students and faculty rushed to save what they could, but within six hours, only a few outer walls remained standing. The dome had collapsed and the entire structure was in ruins. No life was lost, and the church was not harmed, but the fire had destroyed everything that carried the educational endeavor at Notre Dame.

Father Sorin was in Canada on his way to Europe when he heard the news. He returned immediately and, upon arrival, toured the wreckage. People expected him to bend under the tragedy of seeing his life’s work in ruins. Instead, he stiffened.

“If it were ALL gone, I should not give up,” he said. “The fire was my fault. 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 that I dreamed too small a dream. Tomorrow we will begin again and 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.”

Support came from all over to help Notre Dame rebuild. More than 300 workers laid millions of bricks for the new building over the course of that summer. Though not complete with the dome you see now, the building was ready that fall to receive the 324 students who arrived for classes less than five months after the great fire.

The statue of Mary arrived in 1880, but had to wait eight years for the dome to be finished to support it. The women of nearby St. Mary’s College procured the statue, which is modeled after one that was erected in Rome by the pope. It stands 19 feet high and weighs 4,000 pounds.

Mary’s statue is clothed in gold and stands on a crescent moon, images that come from the Book of Revelation. That Scripture describes a vision of Mary as “a woman in the sky, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.” The uniform colors for the Fighting Irish are blue and gold for this reason: the blue calls to mind the dark sky behind Mary and gold represents her clothed with the sun.

In the statue atop the dome, Mary also stands with her feet crushing a serpent, another Scriptural reference. In the Book of Genesis, we hear the story of Eve listening to the serpent and disobeying God, which brought sin into the world. Mary is the new Eve who tramples the serpent. Mary listened to God’s invitation to be the mother of Jesus, so her radical obedience brings life to the world through her son. She enables our victory over sin and death.

Father Sorin had a deep devotion to Mary, and naming the University after her and placing a statue of her atop the Main Building was a way to symbolize that he entrusted the University to her care. He relied on Mary, just as many other Christians continue to, because she shows us that hope allows God to do great things through us. That hope animated Sorin and it is what he wanted Notre Dame to impart to its students and to the world.