Spiritual Roots

The spiritual heritage of the congregation comes from two main sources. One is the deeply rooted Catholic spirituality of the Diocese of Münster, particularly as communicated in the formative catechesis and the pedagogy of Rev. Bernard Overberg (1754-1826). His way of leading people into a personal relationship with a loving and provident God continued beyond his death as a living tradition that helped form the first Coesfeld sisters as Christians, catechists, and teachers. The other source is the spiritual legacy that the Sisters of Notre Dame of Amersfoort brought with them to Coesfeld. That legacy goes back to the Frenchwoman, Julie Billiart (1750-1816), who with her close friend Francoise Blin de Bourdon had earlier founded the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, Belgium. Through the Rule and community spirit, and much later through learning her story, the Coesfeld sisters came to share also in Julie's special way of relating to God as good. 

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