Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin (French: Édouard Sorin), C.S.C. (February 6, 1814October 31, 1893) was a French-born priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross and the founder of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and of St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. Early life Edouard Frédéric Sorin was born on February 6, 1814, at in Ahuillé, near Laval, France to Julian Sorin de la Gaulterie and Marie Anne Louise Gresland de la Margalerie. He was the seventh of nine children, and he was born into a well-off middle-class family and grew up in a three-story manor home (the chateau de la Roche) with seven acres of land. His family was religious and had sheltered two non-juring priests during the persecutions of the French Revolution. He received an early education in the home, in the local village school, and by the local parish priest. He then enrolled in the School of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Laval, but after one year he decided to become a priest and with his family's backing enrolled at the diocesan seminary in Precigné. Here he completed his humanities course and then enrolled at the major seminary in Le Mans for theology. Among his fellow students was the future cardinals Benoît-Marie Langénieux and Guillame Meignan. Here he made the acquaintance of Basil Moreau, who was vice rector and professor of scripture. He also became interested in missionary work after listening to the pleads of Simon Bruté, bishop of Vicennes in Indiana, who had returned to France to recruit missionaries. Completing his seminary studies, he was ordained a priest on May 27, 1838, and was assigned as parish priest in Parcé-sur-Sarthe. He remained in this position for about fourteen month, but then desired to join Basil Moreau's novel organization, the Congregation of Holy Cross (born out of the merger of Moreau's auxiliary priests and Jacques-Francois Dujarié's Brothers of Saint Joseph). With the bishop's permission, he joined the group and underwent a brief novitiate. On August 15, 1840, Sorin - together with Basil Moreau and three other priests - were the first members of the Congregation of Holy Cross to take solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Missionary to America Simon Bruté, who Sorin has witnessed recruiting priests and missionaries for his recently established diocese in Vincennes in Indiana, died in 1839. His successor Célestin Guynemer de la Hailandière renewed the call for help,