By THE HERALD-WHIG STAFF
The School Sisters of Notre Dame celebrated a special liturgy Sunday at St. Francis Church, celebrating the order's 150 years of ministry in Quincy.
Mayor John Spring presented a proclamation to honor the sisters' history in the city and proclaimed 2009-10 as the "School Sisters of Notre Dame Sesquicentennial."
Monsignor Michael Kuse celebrated the Mass, which attracted more than 40 of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
The sisters sang the song "God's Cause," written by David Haas and based on the words of Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger, who founded the School Sisters of Notre Dame order.
Sister Joan Markus, provincial leader of the St. Louis Province of School Sisters of Notre Dame, shared a reflection, and the sisters renewed their vows.
A reception was held after the liturgy, providing the visiting sisters and their former students an opportunity to reconnect.
The roots of the sisters' involvement in Quincy can be traced to 1833, the foundational year for the School Sisters of Notre Dame. This also was the beginning of St. Boniface, the oldest German Catholic parish in northwestern Illinois, and the foundational parish for an orphanage and a number of other parishes in the city.
On the Feast of All Saints, Nov. 1, 1859, Mother Caroline Friess, a School Sister of Notre Dame originally from Bavaria, arrived in Quincy via steamboat. She came to consider the possibility of sending sisters to teach the children.
According to SSND history, the news of her arrival spread quickly among the German population, which asked her to send sisters to teach the children in the area. Within a few weeks, a school and convent was ready for the sisters. On Dec. 27, 1859, two sisters and a candidate arrived to teach 400 students.
In the past 150 years, more than 100 young women from Quincy have entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame. During that time, more than 1,040 School Sisters of Notre Dame have served as principals and teachers of the various schools, and in a variety of parish ministries and outreach in Quincy.
