In April 1855, Father Sorin acquired 275 acres across the road from Notre Dame, and this land would become Saint Mary’s College (Sister Mary Immaculate 25). At the time of this purchase, the 275 acres cost $8,000, although Father Sorin was only required to pay $1,000 up front (Sister Mary Immaculate 25). Four months after Father Sorin made the initial purchase of the Saint Mary’s College land, Mother Angela’s mother and stepfather, the Phelans, gifted $90,000, including the Phelan’s existing property, to Father Sorin, with the stipulation that Father Sorin pay off the remaining mortgage on their property which was approximately one third of the property’s value (Sister Mary Immaculate 25). Additionally, the Phelans required that they be allowed to stay on Saint Mary’s property rent-free (Sister Mary Immaculate 25).

While it may be assumed that the Phelans’s gift would have been used toward the development of Saint Mary’s College, as that is where the Phelans and Mother Angela were to live and work, this was not the case, as Father Sorin instead added the funds provided by the Phelan family to the Notre Dame coffers (Sister Mary Immaculate 26). In addition to not giving any of the Phelan family gifts to Saint Mary’s or the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Father Sorin later charged the Sisters of the Holy Cross for Saint Mary’s property. On October 24, 1862, after having completed payments on the original $8,000 cost of the Saint Mary’s land, Father Sorin “filed a mortgage for $16,968.25 to be paid by the sisters in five annual installments at 6%” interest” (Sister Mary Immaculate 25). Thus, through the formation of Saint Mary’s College, Father Sorin profited from the $90,000 gift from the Phelan family and the $8,968.25 + interest that he charged the Sisters of The Holy Cross. All in all, it is clear by looking at what the Sisters of the Holy Cross were made to pay and what Sorin made in profit that the land Saint Mary’s is on was not gifted by Notre Dame, but rather purchased by the Sisters of the Holy Cross.

While Father Sorin undoubtedly benefited the most financially in the founding of Saint Mary’s College, the Sisters of the Holy Cross were eventually able to separate their finances from those of the University of Notre Dame and receive some of the money due to them. This financial freedom came in August 1892 when a mandate from Rome was issued that  required “a separation in government, spiritual and temporal matters,” leading the priests of Notre Dame to vote and declare that “the dowries furnished by the sisters and now in the treasury of Notre Dame shall be given entire to the administration of Saint Mary’s within ninety days” (Sister Mary Immaculate 26).