From Oregon to San Francisco

Sisters Loyola and Marie Catherine traveled from the Oregon mission to San Francisco to meet newly arrived Sisters from Belgium. Recognizing the urgent educational needs created by the Gold Rush, California’s Catholic population grew from 20 in 1848 to 20,000 by 1951. They remained in California despite having little more than 25 cents and an abundance of faith. Read More

Marysville

Sisters Mary Cornélia and Mary Catherine accompanied the first group to Marysville, a booming mining center. Additional foundations followed in Santa Clara (1864), San Francisco (1866) and Alameda (1881).

Degrees for Women

The Academy grew, the curriculum evolved, and in time it was chartered as the College of Notre Dame — became the first institution in California authorized to grant baccalaureate degrees to women. It was celebrated as “the best school for young women in the West.”

The Guatemala Sisters and the California Mission

In 1859, SNDdeN extended for the first time into the global South – Guatemala. However, the Sisters stayed there for only 16 years before moving north to California. These transplanted Sisters offered cultural adaptability, bilingual instruction, and the ability to serve among Indigenous and mixed-heritage communities.

Sarasota and the Earthquake

The Sisters purchase a farmhouse and property in Saratoga, California, as a place for the exhausted teachers to rest. That year, an earthquake damaged many schools. In an effort to prevent the spread of fire, the College of Notre Dame, San Francisco, school and convent complex, including the newly constructed addition, is dynamited to create a fire break. Sister Mary Bernardine sends a telegram after the earthquake: “The Sisters, the children, all safe. God is good. Buildings can be rebuilt.”

Mission Dolores School for Boys

The school opens in SanFrancisco, with the Sisters teaching the lower grades. When the Christian Brothers left in 1924, the Sisters took over to teach all of the grades.

Relocation to Ralston Hall

As San Jose grew and the original campus became cramped, the Sisters purchased the Ralston Mansion in Belmont to accommodate their expanding community and schools.

Campus Development

The Sisters built a new structure on Ralston Avenue to house the high school and elementary segments.

Villa Angelica

Lady Maria Antonia Field gifts Villa Angelica, a beautiful property in Carmel, to her friend and former teacher, Sister Angelica, as a retreat house for Sisters.

Wartime Home

Villa Angelica became the temporary home to Junipero Serra Elementary School, a school for children of the nearby Army base, as a wartime measure. After the war, President and Mrs. Eisenhower visited to thank the Sisters. 

College of Notre Dame Graduates to 4 Years

College of Notre Dame in Belmont, Calif., becomes a four-year college, with 23 Sisters involved in teaching, administration or emeritus positions.  

Mission in Hawaii

The mission in Hawaii, started by the Massachusetts Province in 1946, joins the California Province.

Novitiate Enrollment Blooms

The novitiate in Saratoga, California, is overflowing with new entrants during the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, the Sisters establish or join the faculties of five additional high schools, 20 elementary schools and two Montessori schools across California, Oregon and Washington—many of them located in small but rapidly growing communities. 

Vatican II

Following Vatican II, life for the Sisters, including their habit, radically changed. The Sisters start to drive, receive permission to watch TV and go swimming and are allowed to visit family.  

Sister CJ Cunningham and CND

Sister CJ Cunningham, SNDdeN served as president of College of Notre Dame (CND) for 24 years, which at the time was a record in Northern California. She also bestowed an honorary degree to early-Hollywood child star and longtime SNDdeN friend Shirley Temple Black, whose husband Charles served on the CND board.  Read More

College of Notre Dame Goes Co-Ed

The College of Notre Dame undergraduate program becomes co-educational. Initially, male day students were to be commuters. When threee out-of-town men showed up with their luggage, an on-the-spot decision was made to turn some offices into a men’s dorm. “We never regretted that decision!” laughed Sister Catharine Julie “CJ” Cunningham, SNDdeN, then CND President.

Hunters Point

A community of Sisters begins living in Hunters Point, a neighborhood in San Francisco, as a ministry presence with the poor. They work closely with the Redemptorist Fathers in this vibrant faith community.

Pajaro Valley Shelter

Sisters Susan Olson and Marie Veronica Wagner, SNDdeN open the Pajaro Valley Shelter for women and children in Watsonville. This shelter continues to provide budgeting and parenting classes, and job-seeking assistance to lead to stable housing in Santa Cruz County, serving more than 200 families annually.

Casa de la Cultura Center in Watsonville is founded by Sister Rosa Dolores Rodriguez, SNDdeN to meet the needs of migrant farm workers. She continues to serve as executive director. 

I Have a Dream Program

Sister Georgianna Coonis begins the “I Have a Dream” program with Stanford MBA students to help at-risk students in East Palo Alto.

Notre Dame - AmeriCorps

Sister Jeanette Braun serves as the first Director of Notre Dame – AmeriCorps in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sister Joan Burke, SNDdeN serves as the Congregation’s first representative at the United Nations. 

Belmont Province Center Opens

The Sisters welcome staff and residents at the new Belmont Province Center. Located at the historic Ralston Hall mansion, the site housed the novitiate and Province administration, while facilitating the expansion of Notre Dame High School and elementary education in California. 

NDNU turns 100

The institution was renamed Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) in 2001.

Belmont Celebrates 100 Years in California

Nearly 400 Sisters and friends – including Associates, alumni, students, staff, former Sisters, supporters, and community and state leaders – gathered in September 2023 at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) in Belmont, California, for the centennial celebration of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur’s arrival to the area.

Sister Kathryn Keenan, SNDdeN of Redwood City, California (second from right), and four Sisters from the East are named to the Province Leadership Team for a five-year term: Sisters Ginny Scally, Maria Delaney, Pat O’Brien, Roberta Rzeznick, SNDdeN. 

Sister Gillian

Sister Gillian Wallace, SNDdeN (center) makes her perpetual vows at the Belmont Province Center. 

California Sisters celebrated 175 years woven together in God’s goodness.