Sister Louise Van der Schrieck

Sister Louise Van der Schrieck (born Nov. 14, 1813, Bergen-op-Zoom, Neth.—died Dec. 3, 1886, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) was a Roman Catholic leader under whom the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and their associated educational institutions were established across the American Midwest and East.

Van der Schrieck was educated at the school of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Belgium. In 1837 she became a novice of the order, and in 1839 she became Sister Louise. She was one of eight sisters who volunteered to immigrate to the United States to establish the order there. They settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1840, establishing the order’s first permanent home outside Belgium. A boarding school, a school for the children of the poor, and a Sunday school were soon in operation.

In 1845 Sister Louise became superior of the convent, and in 1848 she became superior-provincial for all establishments east of the Rocky Mountains. During her 38 years as superior-provincial the number of foundations under her authority grew from 2 to 27, and some 800 sisters staffed the order’s academies and nearly 50 parochial elementary schools in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other cities. In 1867 she sent sisters to staff a school for African American children in Cincinnati. Night classes for adults were also given in several cities. Under her firm, traditionalist administration, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur flourished and provided service to the rapidly growing Roman Catholic populations of eastern and midwestern cities.

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