8
|
Connections
hcc-nd.edu | Campus Updates
Constitution Day Celebrated with Historical Context On September 20, 2017, Holy Cross students, faculty, and staff gathered in the Driscoll Auditorium to hear Patrick Griffin, Ph.D., of the University of Notre Dame Department of History, give a speech titled “The Constitution: What It Meant, What it Means.”This speech was presented in observation of Constitution Day, a holiday created by the federal government to celebrate the 1787 adoption of the United States Constitution. Griffin’s speech concerned the Founding Fathers and their reasons Patrick Griffin, Ph.D. for adopting the Constitution. His speech was intended to contextualize the history of the document. The crux of his speech was that the founders were ordinary people with ideas for the new nation in the midst of negotiation.
In 2008, Griffin was named the Madden-Hennebry Professor of IrishAmerican studies at Notre Dame and became the chair of the department in 2011. He has written and edited several books, all primarily focused on colonial-era America and early modern Irish and British history. He also studies the comparative history of revolution and rebellion in Ireland, Britain, and America in the 17th and 18th centuries. After the speech, Griffin engaged in a question and answer session with the audience. The event was followed by a social reception in the atrium. Holy Cross College first began observing Constitution Day in the early 2000s by distributing pocket editions of the Constitution to students and faculty. Holy Cross professor Ángel Cortés, Ph.D., delivered the first formal speech in 2012.
Traveling in Sorin’s Footsteps
Center: Brother Larry Stewart, C.S.C., and Brother Chester Freel, C.S.C.,were two of the many pilgrims who walked all or part of the ND trail.
by Macenzie Lane, ’20
by Kristina Barroso Burrell
To commemorate the 175th anniversary of the University of Notre Dame, a group of 32 pilgrims followed the 320-mile trail Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., and seven Holy Cross Brothers, took from Vincennes, IN, to South Bend, IN, in November 1842 to found the university. The trek began Sunday, August 13, and ended Saturday, August 26. For the last three miles of the journey, from Howard Park in South Bend, to the South Quad on the Notre Dame campus, the pilgrims were joined by thousands of people, led by the Band of the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C., and Saint Mary’s College President Jan Cervelli. Holy Cross College professor Eileen Dial, Ed.D., chair of the education department, walked in the crowd that last day. “Walking the Notre Dame trail with the other pilgrims reminded me of the role the university and the other colleges have had in the development of the area,” she says. “Honoring those who were brave enough to make the journey to begin this wonderful community in Notre Dame, IN, made me proud to be a part of continuing the work of educating young people with the Brothers of Holy Cross.” One of the pilgrims who made the entire 14-day trip was Holy Cross Brother Larry Stewart, C.S.C. Although at 80, he was the oldest participant to walk the entire trail, he was undaunted by the distance. Br. Larry is an avid cyclist who has ridden across the country multiple times, most recently in 2007. On the last day of the Notre Dame Trail, he strode purposefully across the Holy Cross College campus at the front of the pack, a smile on his face every step.