Notre Dame to celebrate Father Edward Sorin’s 200th birthday | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Notre Dame to celebrate Father Edward Sorin’s 200th birthday Notre Dame to celebrate Father Edward Sorin’s 200th birthday Published: January 31, 2014 Author: Michael O. Garvey Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C. The University of Notre Dame will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., on Feb. 6 (Thursday) with a Mass at 5:15 p.m. in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Rev. Robert Loughery, C.S.C., rector of Sorin Hall, will preside at the Mass and give the homily. The founder of Notre Dame was born Feb. 6, 1814, in Ahuillé, Mayenne, a small village in northwestern France. Ordained to the priesthood in 1838, he led a band of seven members of a newly formed religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross, to what was then mission territory on the Indiana frontier three years later. On Nov. 26, 1842, when he arrived at what is now the campus of Notre Dame, Father Sorin was 28 years old. The only shelter then standing on the 524-acre site was, Father Sorin wrote in his journal, “an old log cabin, 24 × 40 feet, the ground floor of which answered as a room for a priest, and the story above for a chapel for the Catholics of South Bend and the neighborhood, although it was open to all the winds.” Undaunted by the cabin’s dilapidation, Father Sorin envisioned there what he soon began to build and to call “L’Université de Notre Dame du Lac” (the University of Our Lady of the Lake), insisting that the new school would become “one of the most powerful means for doing good in this country.” The confidence of that pledge was tested on April 23, 1879, when a massive fire destroyed the Main Building and virtually the entire fledgling university. In what would become an iconic moment of Notre Dame’s history, Father Sorin addressed the stunned survivors of the catastrophe who had gathered a few days later in Sacred Heart Church. “I came here as a young man and dreamed of building a great university in honor of Our Lady,” he told them. “But I built it too small, and she had to burn it to the ground to make the point. So, tomorrow, as soon as the bricks cool, we will rebuild it, bigger and better than ever.” The University, rebuilt, bigger, and better, reopened four months later. Log Chapel The Log Chapel, a century-old replica of the cabin Father Sorin first saw here, will be open from 3 to 10 p.m. Feb. 6 and tours of the building will be given at 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 p.m. On the evening of Feb. 6, the Notre Dame dining halls will serve 19th-century French cuisine, including birthday cake, in honor of Father Sorin’s birthplace. During the years of his presidency at Notre Dame, Father Sorin discouraged public celebrations of his birthday but did allow a public celebration of the feast of his patron, St. Edward the Confessor, on Oct. 13. In accordance with that spirit, Notre Dame’s celebration of Father Sorin’s bicentennial will include numerous other events, particularly in October, to commemorate Father Sorin’s life, ministry and vision. On Thursday (Jan. 30), in an audience with members of Notre Dame’s board of trustees, Pope Francis praised the University’s founder, saying that “the vision which guided Father Edward Sorin and the first religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross in establishing the University of Notre Dame du Lac remains, in the changed circumstances of the 21st century, central to the University’s distinctive identity and its service to the Church and American society.” Posted In: Faith Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 03, 2022 dCEC to Award 2023 ND Evangelium Vitae Medal to Robert P. George September 22, 2022 In memoriam: Rev. Richard Warner, C.S.C., longtime leader for Notre Dame, Congregation of Holy Cross September 15, 2022 In new book on global Catholicism, Provost John McGreevy explores modern history, current challenges of the Church September 15, 2022 Death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean to speak at Notre Dame September 14, 2022 Apostolic nuncio to Great Britain to deliver the 2022 Keeley Vatican Lecture For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn