In the late 1680s, Jesuits set up St. Joseph’s Mission in the South Bend area, but in the wake of the French and Indian War, the British forced all of the priests out of the area. As a result, the Mission lacked a resident priest from the late 1750s until around 1830, when Fr. Badin, the first priest ordained in the US, arrived here and built the chapel.
When Fr. Badin left, he gave the chapel and the 650 acres of land to Fr. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., and the band of brothers who joined him as missionaries from France and arrived at the site on the November 26th, 1842. For a full year it served as the only building on campus, and the brothers lived and taught upstairs. The first floor was used as a chapel.
The original log chapel fell into disuse in 1848 and then burned to the ground in 1856. It was not until 1906 that a replica of the original chapel was constructed.
This intimate lakeside worship space is used regularly for Masses. Throughout its many years on campus, Notre Dame’s Log Chapel has been the site of countless university-related religious services: weddings, anniversaries, baptisms and prayer services have been held within its four walls. It has become a sacred place filled with cherished memories of faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Notre Dame.
Fr. Badin died in 1853 and was buried in Cincinnati, Ohio, but his dream was always to be buried under the shadow of the Golden Dome. So, his body was exhumed and brought back to Notre Dame 50 years later. Three of Badin’s successors are also buried in the Log Chapel: Fr. Louis Deseille, Fr. Benjamin Petit and Fr. Francois Cointet.Father Edward Sorin (1814 - 1893) - Our Founder
Edward Sorin was born February 6, 1814, at Ahuillé, France. His early education was directed by his mother, known for her intelligence and virtue. After completing his classical studies, Sorin entered the diocesan seminary, where he was distinguished for superior ability and exemplary life. He enrolled himself in the Congregation of Holy Cross, a community of priests, brothers, and sisters founded at Le Mans by the Blessed Basil Moreau. Fr. Sorin, although recently ordained, was selected by his superiors to establish the Congregation of Holy Cross in what was then considered a remote district of the United States.
Accompanied by six brothers, he arrived in New York in the autumn of 1841 and immediately set out for Indiana. At the age of 28, in an exceptionally rigorous winter, Sorin founded Notre Dame on November 26, 1842. Sorin and his Holy Cross brothers took possession of 524 snow-covered acres, previously owned by Fr. Badin and the Indiana mission. He named his fledging school in honor of Our Lady, “L’Université de Notre Dame du Lac” (The University of Our Lady of the Lake). Following Moreau’s example, Sorin sent priests and brothers to found other schools and parishes throughout the United States and Canada. On Jan. 15, 1844, the Indiana legislature officially chartered the University of Notre Dame.
It would be fair to say that as of 1844 and for many years thereafter, the designation of Notre Dame as a "University," as that term is understood today, was more aspirational than descriptive. As the product of the French seminary system, and by temperament more of an administrator than an academic, Sorin was content to run Notre Dame on the model of a French boarding school, which included elementary (the "minims"), preparatory, and collegiate programs, as well as a manual training school. Over the years, however, he accepted the recommendations of others, including Fr. John A. Zahm, C.S.C., to strengthen Notre Dame's academic curriculum.
Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin (1768 – 1853)
Born in Orléans, Fr. Badin fled France during the French Revolution and arrived in Philadelphia in 1771 and was ordained in 1773 by bishop John Carroll and was the first priest to be ordained in the U.S. He studied English at Georgetown and then conducted missionary work among the Indians from the Appalachians to the Great Lakes.For the next 14 years Fr. Badin travelled 100,000 miles on foot, horseback and boat between widely scattered Catholic settlements in Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. He also visited Fort Dearborn, located in what is now Chicago. In 1830, Fr. Badin moved to South Bend and started his missionary work with the Potawatomi Indians. He founded the Mission of St Mary of the Lakes and built the log chapel.
When he moved yo Kentucky in 1837, Badin gave the Mission's 524 acres of land near South Bend to the Diocese of Vincennes, which later gave the land Fr. Sorin.