SORIN, Edward, clergyman, born near Paris, France, 6 February, 1814. He was graduated at the University of Paris, afterward studied for the priesthood, and was ordained, 9 June, 1838. At the end of a year he felt a desire to become a missionary among the Indians of America, and, with the view of preparing himself for this work, he entered the newly founded order of the Holy Cross. He was shortly afterward appointed bishop of Bengal, but declined. He sailed from Havre, 5 August, 1841, reached New York on 14 September, and at once set out for Indiana, where he began his labors among the Indians. He was forced to abandon this field by the superior of his order, who directed him to establish schools wherever an opportunity offered. He arrived at the present site of Notre Dame on 24 November, 1842, with only five dollars to begin the work of erecting a school. The waste was covered with snow, and the only building for miles around was a dilapidated log-hut. He began with energy, and spent five days in repairing the log-cabin and in fitting it up so that one half served as a chapel and the other as a dwelling for himself and six brothers. He then began to build a college, which was chartered as a university in 1844 by the legislature of Indiana. From that day the University of Notre Dame progressed under his guidance until it is to-day the largest and most important Roman Catholic educational establishment in the United States. In 1857 he was appointed provincial superior of the houses of the order of the Holy Cross in the United States, and in 1868 he was elected superior-general for life. He crossed the Atlantic forty-three times, and it has been computed that his journeys and voyages together would more than equal eight times the circumference of the earth. Besides the University of Notre Dame, he established flourishing colleges and schools in every part of the United States and Canada. He is likewise the founder and superior-general of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the United States, of whom there are more than eight hundred, chiefly engaged in conducting academies and schools.