Celebrating our Golden Journey: Fifty Years as a Province

This September we begin our year-long celebration of our 50th anniversary as Rosa Mystica Province. Join us for a brief "journey" through our province history.

The first Sisters of Notre Dame arrived in Los Angeles from Cleveland in August of 1924. These 11 pioneers immediately accepted the invitation to teach at two parish schools—St. Matthias in Huntington Park and St. Lawrence in Watts. This latter school was definitely a mission to the poor, one that appealed to Sisters of Notre Dame from their very beginning in 1850 in Coesfeld, Germany.

In 1948 we opened a novitiate in California and young women, following the example of the Sisters they knew, entered the congregation. Besides the vocations from California, gradually more Sisters were assigned to California from Cleveland and in 1961 there were sufficient Sisters and ministries to merit elevation to the status of a province. Rosa Mystica Province, with its headquarters at Notre Dame Academy in West Los Angeles, continued to thrive. In 1979 the present Notre Dame Center became the new provincial house.

Now, 50 years after the inauguration of Rosa Mystica Province, we Sisters of Notre Dame continue to serve the people as women of hope, proclaiming God's goodness and provident care, united in one heart, one hope, one mission…committed to global transformation.

Sister Mary Anncarla Costello,