Side A: The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur were founded in 1804 by Saint Julie Billiart to spread the message “Ah, how good it is to serve God.” In 1840, at the request of Bishop John B. Purcell in 1840, the Sisters travelled to Cincinnati, Ohio to help educate the city’s growing Catholic population. Choosing to serve the poor, the Sisters turned down land in Brown County and instead founded schools at Sixth Street in Cincinnati. Since the start of the 21st century, the Sisters serve in twenty-seven other states, the District of Columbia, and in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Sister Dorothy Stang, while working for land reforms for the poor in Brazil, was martyred in 2004.
Side B: Saint Julie Billiart described education as the greatest work on Earth. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur embody this through their work of educating students at all levels. Beginning with the Sixth Street Academy in 1840, they eventually came to staff approximately 100 schools nationwide. Locally, they founded Mount Notre Dame Academy in 1860 and the Convent of Our Lady of the Summit in 1890. In 1897, the order established Trinity College in Washington D.C., the oldest of the three Catholic liberal arts college the order sponsors in the United States.