Our Home
Good Counsel Hill in Mankato, Minnesota, is our home. We profess our vows at Good Counsel and set out on Christ's mission from there. Each year we return to celebrate, gather in friendship and to support one another as we minister to those most in need. When most of our work is done, we come home to rest, reflect, and complete our days in prayer.
Around 1900, rumors began that the School Sisters of Notre Dame were considering the establishment of a new province to better serve the Northwest United States.
The first thought for most was St. Paul, Minnesota. Its many advantages included the center of the archdiocese and proximity to institutions of higher learning for the education of the sisters. In addition, some of our sisters were already housed in St. Paul and the surrounding towns.
But, in 1909, Aaron Duke offered the School Sisters of Notre Dame land on a hilly section in the northwest extremity of Mankato. This generosity made the School Sisters of Notre Dame feel as if Mankato had been providentially chosen for the erection of the new motherhouse.
We built our Provincial House and Our Lady of Good Counsel Academy (closed in 1980) on a bluff overlooking the Minnesota River Valley in 1912 and later, in 1926, the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Please visit us and enjoy the beauty of our historic, rural, 150-acre campus in southern Minnesota. Mass is held daily at 11 AM and is open to the public. Call 507-389-4200 for more information.
