Mother Mary Caroline Friess, SSND

(née Josefa Frieß)

Reception September 8, 1842

München-Au, Germany

First Profession October 15, 1845

Main Motherhouse

Munich, Germany

Vicar General

School Sisters of Notre Dame

North America

1850 to 1853

First Commissary General

School Sisters of Notre Dame

North America

1853 to 1892

Beloved sister of Sister M. Alipia Frieß, SSND; and Father Friedrich Frieß.

Born outside Paris, France, to a French mother and Bavarian father, young Josefa Friess was raised in Bavaria by her Grandmother Frieß and her Rev. Uncle Frieß.

Entering the newly founded Congregation of the Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame, Josefa was given the name Maria Karolina at the time of her reception of the habit on September 8, 1842. A talented teacher, young Sister Caroline accompanied Blessed Mother M. Theresa Gerhardinger, foundress of the Congregation, to the United States in 1847 as part of the first group of School Sisters to minister in North America.

Her first ministry in the New World was as teacher at St. Alphonsus Parochial School in Baltimore, Maryland. In the spring of 1848, she accompanied Blessed Mother M. Theresa and Saint John Neumann, CSsR (Redemptorist superior in Baltimore) on a "tour of inspection" of the Redemptorist parishes in the US. The trip took them through Pittsburgh, to midwest cities such as Milwaukee and Detroit, up to Buffalo and NYC, down to Philadelphia, and back to Baltimore, as well as many stops in between. All total, they covered more than 3,000 miles.

When Blessed Mother M. Theresa returned to Munich in 1848, she appointed the 24 year old Sister M. Caroline as Superintendent of SSND schools in North America. During the years ahead, until her death in 1892, Mother Caroline would start more than 200 schools in Canada and the US.

In 1850, at the tender age of 26, Mother Caroline was appointed Vicar General of the Congregation for North America! Three years later she was appointed Commissary General for North America by Blessed Mother M. Theresa. Following Blessed M. Theresa's death, the office of Commissary General became an elected one and Mother Caroline was elected to the office and held it until her own death in 1892.

Traveling by stage coach, wagon, train, and steamboat, Mother Caroline traveled constantly throughout Canada and the US visiting the Sisters located in such diverse places as Rochester, NY; New Orleans, Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois; Baltimore, Maryland; Mankato, Minnesota; St. Agatha, Ontario; and the list goes on. Under her direction, the Sisters took on the education of African-American children, Native American children, deaf children, young working women, as well as the education of girls for which the Congregation had been founded.

Mother Caroline loved the United States and started the naturalization process in Baltimore in 1850. On January 9, 1856, living in Milwaukee, she became a US citizen.

At the time of her death in the Milwaukee Motherhouse in the summer of 1892, from across the nation, bishops, pastors, businessmen, and the press hailed her for her promotion of education and the spread of the parochial school system in the United States, helping to make it the largest private school system in the world.

Mother Caroline was succeeded in office by Mother M. Ernesta Funke, SSND.

(SSND Archives)

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord!