First commemorated by the University of Notre Dame community in the early 1840s, Founders’ Day was an annual celebration tied to the Feast of Edward the Confessor, Patron Saint of Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C. While the tradition fell by the wayside over the years, this October 12-13, 2021, the University is reviving the celebration of Founders’ Day, seizing this opportunity to celebrate the founding of the University by taking a deeper look at our own history so as to understand our present – and to reimagine our future.
The 2021 celebration will also recognize the 100th anniversary of the passing of Rev. John A. Zahm, C.S.C., by honoring his legacy as a pivotal leader at the University. Notre Dame Press is proud to feature works that commemorate the legacy of the University of Notre Dame and the individuals who have and continue to expand its reach and reputation.
Edward Sorin
Marvin R. O’Connell’s Edward Sorin presents the definitive account of the life and labors of Edward Sorin, founder of the University of Notre Dame. Father Sorin, with the impressive help of gifted colleagues, turned the University from a section of land with a few log shacks and a handful of half-educated brothers to the premier Catholic institution of higher learning we revere today. This book documents Father Sorin’s will power and determination to build his university from the ground up to provide the groundwork of education for generations of students to come.
“Anyone interested in the origins of the University of Notre Dame will cherish this excellent biography of Fr. Edward Sorin. Edward Sorin can be highly recommended. It deserves a place of honor in any well-stocked library.”
—Cistercian Studies Quarterly
Faith and Science at Notre Dame: John Zahm, Evolution, and the Catholic Church
In Faith and Science at Notre Dame, John Slattery charts the rise and fall of Holy Cross Priest Rev. John Augustine Zahm, C.S.C., examining his ascension to international fame in bridging evolution and Catholicism and shedding new light on his ultimate downfall via censure by the Congregation of the Index of Prohibited Books. This book is a complex and thrilling tale of Notre Dame, empirical science, and the simple faith of an Indiana priest.
“Slattery’s account of Zahm’s work provides a much-needed bridge between this reactionary era in the Church’s recent intellectual history and the more open era of Catholic thought that preceded the French Revolution. Faith and Science at Notre Dame is an indispensable addition to this history.”
—Commonweal
The University of Notre Dame: A History
Thomas E. Blantz C.S.C. ‘s The University of Notre Dame tells the story of the renowned Catholic university’s growth and development from a primitive grade school and high school founded in 1842 by the Congregation of Holy Cross to the acclaimed undergraduate and research institution it became by the early twenty-first century. This book highlights the remarkable leaders who took part in developing the University to its present glory, including Father Edward Sorin, the twenty-eight-year-old French priest and visionary founder. By capturing the strong connections that exist between Notre Dame’s founding and early life and today’s university, Blantz creates the most complete and up-to-date history of the university available.
“Few people are better equipped to tell the story of how Sorin and Notre Dame beat the odds than Father Thomas Blantz, C.S.C. . . . In his newly published 600-page tome, The University of Notre Dame: A History, Blantz narrates the history of the University from the establishment of its founding religious order and the arrival of Father Sorin in Indiana to the inauguration of Father John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., as the University’s 17th president in 2005.”
—American Catholic Studies Newsletter
Monk’s Notre Dame
Edward A. “Monk” Malloy C.S.C.’s Monk’s Notre Dame is a wonderful collection of humorous, poignant, and revealing stories and anecdotes that offers special insight into the university that Father Malloy has served so faithfully. With a story to tell about nearly every aspect of life at Notre Dame, this book intersperses fresh insight on traditional campus events and lesser-known stories of the University. Monk’s Notre Dame presents charming vignettes about the people who have made Notre Dame the place it is.
“As a student, administrator, faculty member, priest-in-residence and more, Fr. Malloy has seen our University from virtually every perspective. This book gives us all the opportunity to learn from and enjoy Notre Dame as seen through the eyes of my predecessor as President, fellow Holy Cross priest, and friend, Monk Malloy. I recommend it for anyone who loves Notre Dame and/or wants to better know this special place.”
—Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president, University of Notre Dame
The History of the Congregation of Holy Cross
Founded by Basile Moreau, C.S.C., the Congregation of Holy Cross (C.S.C) sought to minister and educate the people of France devastated by the French Revolution. During the centuries that followed, the Congregation expanded its mission around the globe to educate and evangelize, including the Congregation’s first educational institution in America—the University of Notre Dame. James T. Connelly, C.S.C. ‘s sweeping book entitled The History of the Congregation of Holy Cross offers the first complete history of the Congregation, covering nearly two centuries from 1820 to 2018.
“I want to celebrate and applaud the publication of Father Jim Connelly’s The History of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Father Connelly’s book is the first to retell this great story. For this, we can all be forever grateful.”
—Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president emeritus, University of Notre Dame
Stories in Light: A Guide to the Stained Glass of the Basilica at the University of Notre Dame
The Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame contains one of the largest collections of late nineteenth-century French stained glass outside of France. Cecilia Davis Cunningham and Nancy Cavadini’s informative guidebook Stories in Light tells the unique story of the windows: the improbable creation of a glassworks by cloistered Carmelite nuns in LeMans, France, and their stained glass that so perfectly illuminated the late-nineteenth-century French Catholic spirituality of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
“A beautifully illustrated and impressively informative volume, Stories in Light: A Guide to the Stained Glass of the Basilica at the University of Notre Dame is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library. . . collections.”
—Midwest Book Review
This Place Called Notre Dame
As Notre Dame graduates who have worked to encapsulate the beauty of Notre Dame through their respective careers, photographer Matt Cashore and author and editor Kerry Temple have combined their talents in a magnificent new coffee-table book, This Place Called Notre Dame. Cashore’s photographs beautifully document campus life, and Kerry Temple’s accompanying articles and essays chronicle the nature, traditions, and growth of Notre Dame over the past four decades. This collaboration is a volume that speaks of Notre Dame with insight, artistry, and affection that will be treasured by all who love the University.
“Matt Cashore and Kerry Temple bring to This Place Called Notre Dame a depth of knowledge about the university shared by few people. Through the striking photography and engaging prose, we see ‘old Notre Dame’ in new and illuminating ways. In their pictures and words, Notre Dame comes alive as it is today—and even echoes awaken.”
—Robert Schmuhl, author of Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh