We would like to offer you the opportunity to get to know the School
Sisters of Notre Dame better by giving you a little insight each week
into our foundress, Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger. This week
we've provided you with a short biography of this extraordinary woman -
most weeks this post will be a simple quote from her, a portrait, or a
fact about her life. We hope that you enjoy getting to know Theresa and,
by getting a sense of who she was, coming to better know the spirit of
all SSNDs!
Foundress
Caroline
Gerhardinger (1797-1879) lived during turbulent times in Bavaria. At
the age of fifteen, she was already a certified teacher in the school
for girls in Stadtamhof near Regensburg. She was a very gifted educator
whose enthusiastic and encouraging acceptance of the children soon made
her a beloved teacher. Under the spiritual guidance of Bishop George
Michael Wittmann (1760-1833), Caroline gradually recognized God’s call
to found a religious community in order to respond to the needs of the
times through education.
Spirituality
On November 16, 1835, Caroline professed her religious vows and
took the name, Mary Theresa of Jesus. Her love for God, nourished and
strengthened by her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, enkindled the
burning desire of her life: to know God and to do God’s will. God’s
cause was the only concern of her heart. Blessed Theresa anchored her
community in poverty and dedicated it to Mary.
Innovation
In 1822, Caroline Gerhardinger had written, “The love of Jesus
sees into the future.” As foundress, she endeavored to give the new
congregation a future. She sent her sisters in communities of twos and
threes to small towns and villages where they taught girls who would
have been deprived of an adequate education. This brought about the
development of a new form of apostolic religious life whereby all the
sisters and houses were governed by a member of the congregation, a
general superior. As a result, the congregation experienced rapid growth
and acceptance, but Blessed Theresa and her sisters also suffered great
hardship and painful struggle. In 1865, the rule and constitutions of
the School Sisters of Notre Dame were finally approved by Pope Pius IX.
Blessed Theresa then continued to govern the congregation as its
general superior until her death in Munich on May 9, 1879.
Beatification
On November 17, 1985, Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger was
declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Beatification is the third of four steps in a process whereby the
church declares that individuals may be honored and venerated due to
their exemplary life of heroic virtue. This step is preceded by intense
study of an individual’s life, writings, and virtues and, if he or she
was not a martyr for the faith, proof of one miracle worked by God
through his or her intercession. The fourth step of the process is
canonization, whereby the person is declared to be a saint worthy of
honor and veneration by the entire Catholic Church.
Information taken from ssnd.org.
