As Father Theodor Elting came to know the Sisters of Notre Dame of Amersfoort
in The Netherlands, he realized that they had a spirit and mission similar
to that envisioned by Hilligonde Wolbring and Elisabeth
Kühling. In
1850 the Bishop of Münster invited the congregation in Amersfoort
to send several sisters to teach their religious spirit and way of life
to the young women in Coesfeld, Germany.
The Coesfeld sisters later discovered that Amersfoort congregation had
learned their spirit and way of life from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur,
the
community founded by Saint Julie Billiart in 1804. During their religious
formation, Hilligonde and Elisabeth found that this spiritual legacy resonated
with their own faith-filled outlook and desires: a centeredness in a loving,
provident God whose care they wanted to extend to others. When the Amersfoort
sisters returned to their homeland in 1855, the new religious institute
of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Coesfeld was a growing community with flourishing
ministries in schools and parishes of the diocese of Münster.
