and Rome. In order to ease the debt of the Congregation and put on more solid financial footing, he oversaw the sale of the church of Notre Dame de Sainte Croix, its boarding school, and the rest of the Congregation property in Le Mans, which until then had served as the order's headquarters. Hence the headquarters was moved to Notre Dame, Indiana. Sorin was invited to attend the Provincial Council of Cincinnati of 1882 and the Plenary Council of American Bishops at Baltimore in 1884. Founding of St. Edward's University Sorin also founded St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis of the Diocese of Galveston learned of Mrs. Mary Doyle's intention to leave her large South Austin farm to the Catholic Church. The purpose was to establish an "education institution" and he invited Father Sorin to Texas in 1872. Answering the bishop's invitation, Sorin traveled to Austin and surveyed the beauty of the surrounding hills and lakes. A year later, following Mrs. Doyle's death, he founded a Catholic school called St. Edward's Academy in honor of his patron saint, Edward the Confessor and King. In the fledgling institution's first year, 1878, three farm boys made up the student body and met for classes in a makeshift building on the old Doyle homestead. In 1885, the academy secured its charter as a college. Sorin Hall and nearby Sorin Oak — the largest oak tree in Austin — are also named after him. Personal life While Sorin was attached to his French roots, he had a deep desire to be an American and his attachment to his new country manifested in several ways. Notre Dame's first end of year celebration in 1845 was opened by a reading of the Declaration of Independence. He became an American citizen in 1850, and was soon after that named to the government positions of local postmaster and superintendent of the roads. One of the earliest buildings on the Notre Dame campus, Washington Hall, was named after the first U.S. president rather than a Catholic saint. During the Civil War, he allowed several priests and eighty sisters of the community to volunteer as chaplains and nurses, despite their absence affecting the university. His thorough "Americanism" and his "American patriotism and [his] love of American institutions" were praised by John Ireland. In recognition of his work in education, the French Government conferred upon him the