Sister Barbara Brumleve shines a light on the SSND story, one week at a time

The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) is not a single story, but rather many stories woven across centuries and countries, individuals and communities. Sister Barbara Brumleve, already with a book which compiles Mother Caroline’s correspondences under her belt, is no stranger to the width and breadth of the SSND narrative. With that background, in the summer of 2024, she proposed a project by which she would research and compose a weekly series of articles on the rich history of SSND. That series, which she titled “This is Our Story,” provides a concise and carefully researched study on a topic, event or person with a tie to SSND.

Sister Barbara relies on two key resources to help her select her topics, the “Today in the Congregation” portion of the global School Sisters of Notre Dame website, and a copy of the necrology book housed at the Ripa campus, which includes a list of all the deceased sisters. Keeping to these two sources as a starting point, Sister Barbara searches for something that sparks follow up questions, and then lets the story lead her from there.

“I have a mind that thinks that way and I got into this because I have done it for 60 some years,” said Sister Barbara.

“For example, one day last year, there was a little note in my one resource that said, ‘Novice Clara Bräu was the first death in the congregation.’ OK, it’s a fact. I don’t think anyone remembers that. But I thought, ‘I wonder what else can be found out about her.’”

She went on to look at Blessed Theresa’s biography and found a mention of a Sister Clara. And then another. As well as Clara’s relation to other sisters, who went on to be important in their own right. From there, the story for that week presented itself.

Sister Barbara finds that her talent is in weaving together the enormous amount of information already in existence and making it interesting and accessible. Sticking to her two resources of the website and necrology for her topics helps her keep balance and fairness in her coverage. The articles do not follow a straight chronological order but move from the early origins of SSND up through present time and back again.

By design, the articles are no more than two pages long, keeping to the most relevant facts and details. In addition to the article itself, Sister Barbara provides useful footnotes and citations, which she hopes encourages readers to go back and delve deeper into the stories which speak to them. The footnotes also allow her to explain details which might not fit into the text and help bridge gaps to additional topics. When available, she also hunts down images, artwork, graphs, historic maps and other visuals to add interest and context for readers.

Through her work, Sister Barbara has uncovered snippets of times long past, which could otherwise be lost. For example, she once found a diary of a sister from the U.S. who traveled to Munich and visited the motherhouse there. In her writings, this sister offered a detailed description of the basement of the building. This firsthand account might not be something anyone would think to look for in an old diary but provides a compelling look into the practical life of long ago, and a space which no longer exists.

“It’s that ability to look around and say, ‘where else could that information be,’” said Sister Barbara.

This most recent effort of composing the weekly “This is Our Story” is just a portion of Sister Barbara’s contribution to capturing and cataloging the SSND story.

In the early 1980s, the provincial councils of North America sought to find and inventory SSND resource materials. Sister Barbara took on the task of drafting a proposal for the project and was then ultimately selected to lead the initiative. Between 1982-1985, she was one half of the two-person research team. Sister Marjorie Myers from Mankato, was the other and brought with her an important understanding of geography.

The pair needed a car to travel among province destinations and Sister Barbara shares that this opportunity led to her buying her first and only car, which became their traveling office.

“Each day, Sister Majorie and I prayed, ‘God, take us to where you want us to be. Help us to ask the questions you want us to ask and meet the people we most need to meet," said Sister Barbara.

The first year they were on the road most of the time, visiting diocesan offices and churches, in search of letters, records and other primary resources of SSND. Exciting finds, including original correspondence from Mother Caroline and long-lost books were found – sometimes in unexpected places, such as the open stacks of a convent library.

The second year, Sisters Barbara and Majorie started to put together tools, indexes and resources of their findings.

Then, realizing that there was as much to capture from the lives and work of current sisters, they developed a six-page survey, which was distributed to all SSND of the time. The survey received an almost universal response rate and provided invaluable insight to the ministries and mindsets of the sisters in more modern times.

“It took me eight hours one day to re-alphabetize all the 3x5 cards we had on the sisters,” said Sister Barbara.

In 1991, as a result of their work and research a decade earlier, the book, “The Letters of Mother Caroline Friess,” was published. Sister Barbara noted, they made the book as large as possible, within the bounds of a single volume.

“I think people will read ‘This is our Story’ more than they will read the large volumes,” said Sister Barbara. “I think the book is important, but in that way, I think ‘This is our Story’ is more important.”

Read a selection of “This is Our Story” articles.

• Meet four School Sisters of Notre Dame whose death anniversaries occur during the same week of October: Sister Caroleen Hensgen, Sisters Clara Scholl and Magdalen de Pazzi Willinger, and Sister Godwin Verkamp. .
  
  
• Walk with Caroline Gerhardinger, not yet Mother Theresa, and the community at Neunburg vorm Wald as they live through the five months from October, 1833 through March, 1834.
  
  
• Mother Theresa made her vows as a Poor School Sister on November 16, 1835. Where? When? How? Who was present? Experience that event.
  
  
• During the night of December 17-18, 1944, Allied forces bombed Munich, destroying the SSND Motherhouse. Read General Superior M. Almeda Schricker's account of the event.
  
  
• On Tuesday, September 3 we remember Mother Theresa’s being inducted into Germany’s Valhalla temple of honor. Read about her honor.