{"id":5984,"date":"2017-05-01T09:07:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=5984"},"modified":"2017-06-01T10:32:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T14:32:58","slug":"sr-camilla-burns-on-the-trinity-who-built-trinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2017\/05\/sr-camilla-burns-on-the-trinity-who-built-trinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Sr. Camilla Burns on the “Trinity” who Built Trinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Notebook<\/a>(From the Trinity Archives:\u00a0 Notebook documenting the founding years; above, first page showing payments for various contracts for building the south wing of Main Hall)<\/em><\/p>\n

On Founders Day, April 28, 2017, we gathered in the Well to re-dedicate the portrait of Trinity Founder Sister Julia McGroarty, SND. Distinguished Professor Sister Mary Johnson, SND, gave beautiful remarks reminding us of Julia’s immigrant heritage.<\/a>\u00a0 Trinity Archivist and Professor Emerita Sister Mary Hayes, SND, recounted Julia’s biography<\/a> during the founding years.\u00a0 Distinguished Professor Sister Camilla Burns, SND, added insight to the founding story by illuminating the fact that while we celebrate Julia as our primary founder, in fact, there were numerous contributors to Trinity’s establishment and we properly salute the “Trinity” of great women — Julia, Mary Euphrasia, Nepomucene — who made sure that the business of articles of incorporation, land purchases and deeds, contracts for construction and supervision of workers all went according to plan.\u00a0 They were not only visionary and courageous religious women, they were also sharp and shrewd business executives — persistent women! — who did not hesitate to drive hard bargains and insist that work be re-done to get it right.\u00a0 Below are Sr. Camilla’s remarks:<\/em><\/p>\n

The “Trinity” who Founded Trinity
\nRemarks by Sr. Camilla Burns, SND, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies<\/strong>
\nat the Re-dedication of Sr. Julia McGroarty’s Portrait, Founders Day, April 28, 2017<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 1840, eight Belgian Sisters of Notre Dame became immigrants to the United States to begin the SND mission in the US.\u00a0\u00a0 Fifty years later we numbered 887 Sisters and thirty institutions had been established. Sr. Julie McGroarty was responsible for almost half of these foundations.\u00a0 Among her many brilliant achievements were designing curricula for the SND schools.\u00a0 She insisted that they engage the \u201chead, heart and hands,\u201d a holistic approach which she brought to Trinity.\u00a0 Trinity came at the end of her life, the \u201clast measure of her devotion.\u201d\u00a0 She had been suffering from ill health at the time she pursued the idea of Trinity and died in 1901, a year after it opened.\u00a0 She was the one who had the vision and courage to launch it but she needed others to assist her.\u00a0 I would like to speak of two major supporters who together with Sr. Julia I think of as the Trinity of Trinity.<\/p>\n

Sr. Julia deputized Sr. Mary Euphrasia who took the role of the \u201cwoman in Washington\u201d to initiate the idea with Cardinal Gibbons.\u00a0 Sr. Mary Euphrasia also purchased the property of the present site of Trinity.\u00a0 She wrote to Sr. Julia that she had an \u201caffection for the project.\u201d\u00a0 She determined that it was an \u201cunusual undertaking which required unusual means to accomplish.\u201d\u00a0 As a practical realist, she understood the necessity of money and launched a campaign which was effectively Trinity\u2019s first Development Office.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>(Trinity Archives:\u00a0 photo showing building of back part of Main Hall in area that is now Seymour Court)<\/em><\/p>\n

The third Sister of the Trinity was Sr. Mary Nepomucene.\u00a0 She could read blueprints and was given oversight of the construction project.\u00a0\u00a0 An article in the New York Post about Trinity noted that the workers referred to her as the \u201cMistress of Mechanics.\u201d\u00a0 One day a worker said to her, \u201cSister, I wish I had your head.\u201d\u00a0 She replied, \u201cUse the one God gave you.\u201d \u00a0The workers also relate the story of her climbing a ladder to check recent work in the upper floors.\u00a0 She was not satisfied and asked that it be redone.\u00a0 \u00a0Sr. Mary Nepomucene was an excellent seamstress and when not fulfilling her role of \u201cMistress of Mechanics\u201d at Trinity, was back in the convent at K St. preparing all the linens necessary when the convent at Trinity opened.\u00a0 She completed that task before the opening.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>(Trinity Archives photo of the building of the roof of the north wing of Main Hall)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sr. Julia McGroarty once said, probably in a reflective moment, \u201cWe always plant better than we know.\u201d\u00a0 Nothing could be more accurate in describing the story of Trinity.\u00a0 Sr. Julia planted the seed and nursed the sapling but never could have imagined it now.\u00a0\u00a0 If she were here today, she would thank all of you for developing her sapling into a mighty oak.<\/p>\n

\"Notebook<\/a>(Trinity Archives Notebook on Founding of Trinity)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Sisters of Notre Dame who collaborated on the founding of Trinity were visionary women and also sharp, persistent business executives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21,22,24,26,508,30],"tags":[1808,1803,1802,1807],"class_list":["post-5984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebration","category-religion","category-sisters-of-notre-dame","category-social-justice-issues","category-trinity","category-trinity-alumnae","category-womens-leadership","tag-sister-camilla-burns","tag-sister-julia-mcgroarty","tag-sisters-of-notre-dame-de-namur","tag-trinity-washington-university"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}