Congregation of Holy Cross

Latin: Congregatio a Sancta Cruce
Abbreviation	CSC
Formation	1 March 1837
Founder	Blessed Basile-Antoine Marie Moreau, C.S.C.
Founded at	Le Mans, France
Type	Clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men
Headquarters	Via Framura 85, Rome, Italy
Members	1,399 members (includes 729 priests) as of 2020
Motto	Latin: Ave Crux Spes Unica English: Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope
Superior General	Br. Paul Bednarczyk, CSC
Parent organization	Catholic Church
Website	holycrosscongregation.org

The Congregation of Holy Cross (Latin: Congregatio a Sancta Cruce), abbreviated CSC, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in Le Mans, France, in 1837 by Basil Moreau.

Moreau also founded the Marianites of Holy Cross for women, now divided into three independent congregations of sisters: the Marianites of Holy Cross (Le Mans, France), the Sisters of the Holy Cross (Notre Dame, Indiana), and the Sisters of Holy Cross (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).

History

Two Societies

Basile Antoine-Marie Moreau was born at Laigné-en-Belin, near Le Mans, France, on February 11, 1799, in the final months of the French Revolution. When Moreau decided to enter the priesthood, he was forced to undergo his seminary training in secret for fear that the French government would arrest him. He completed his studies and was ordained for the Diocese of Le Mans in 1821. The French government continued to work for the removal of the Church from the educational system, which left many Catholics without a place to be educated or catechized. In 1835, Moreau had formed a group, which he called "Auxiliary Priests", to serve the educational and evangelization needs of the Diocese of Le Mans.

On July 15, 1820, a priest of the Diocese of Le Mans, Jacques-Francois Dujarié, brought together a group of zealous men to serve the educational needs of the people in the French countryside. Fr. Dujarié named this group the Brothers of St. Joseph. By 1835 this group was well established in the diocese, but Dujarié was getting older and they were in need of a new leader. Dujarié and Moreau had met previously and discussed their views on the future of the Church in France and so Dujarié knew that Moreau was just the man he was looking for. With the consent of the bishop, Moreau was given control of the Brothers of St. Joseph on August 31, 1835. He was now the head of two organizations, the Auxiliary Priests and the Brothers of St. Joseph.

The Association of Holy Cross

In 1837, Moreau made the decision to combine his two communities into one society so that the priests and brothers could share resources and ministries in common. On March 1, 1837, the priests and brothers gathered in the church of Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix, Le Mans, in the Sainte-Croix district of Le Mans to sign the Fundamental Act of Union which legally joined them into one association. This new group took on the name of where they met and became the Association of Holy Cross. Initially Holy Cross was a diocesan group and so they primarily served in whatever capacity the bishop asked of them. In 1840 this changed when Moreau received a request to send a delegation from his society to Algeria with the purpose of establishing schools and a seminary. It was at this point that Moreau shifted the focus of Holy Cross and after the first missionaries left in April 1840 the association took on the identity of a religious institute. On August 15, 1840, Moreau and four others became the first professed religious in the Association of Holy Cross. As part of his plan to form this religious institute, Moreau also brought together the first group of women who would become the Marianites of Holy Cross.

In 1841, he sent a group to the United States, establishing the first Holy Cross institution in North America at Notre Dame in Indiana. The institute expanded further by establishing missions in Canada in 1847 and in East Bengal in 1852.

This association of priests, brothers, and sisters, would continue in roughly the same form until May 13, 1857, when Pope Pius IX approved the first constitutions of the priests and brothers. From that point on the Association officially became the Congregation of Holy Cross. Doubting the propriety of a mixed congregation of men and women, Rome separated the women into an independent community at that time. Moreau, in his role as their founder, continued to work for Rome's approval of the sisters' constitution. In 1865, Rome approved the constitutions of the Marianites of Holy Cross, granting them the status of an Apostolic congregation.

Holy Cross and The Holy Family

Moreau saw a visible image of the Holy Family in this Congregation of Holy Cross which he had conceived as an association of religious men and women working together on equal footing for the building of the reign of God. He intended that this Congregation, composed at its origins of three distinct Societies, namely, Sisters, Priests, and Brothers, be an apostolic institute. Calling on the spiritual aid of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Moreau gave to each of the three groups a patron: he consecrated the priests to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; he consecrated the brothers to the pure heart of St. Joseph; and he consecrated the sisters to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He also established Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows, as special patroness for all of Holy Cross, whose members in their several congregations continue to cherish these devotions. As Moreau stated in one of his letters, he envisioned that: "Holy Cross will grow like a mighty tree and constantly shoot forth new limbs and new branches which will be nourished by the same sap and endowed with the same life."

Superiors General

1. Fr. Basil Moreau, CSC (1837–1866)
2. Most Rev. Pierre Dufal, CSC (1866–1868)
3. Fr. Edward Sorin, CSC (1868–1893)
4. Fr. Gilbert Francais, CSC (1893–1926?)
5. Fr. James Wesley Donahue, CSC (1926–1938)
6. Fr. Albert Cousineau, CSC (1938–1950)
7. Fr. Christopher O'Toole, CSC (1950–1962)
8. Fr. Germain-Marie Lalande, CSC (1962–1974)
9. Fr. Tom Barrosse, CSC (1974–1986)
10. Fr. Claude Grou, CSC (1986–1998)
11. Fr. Hugh Cleary, CSC (1998–2010)
12. Fr. Richard Warner, CSC (2010–2016)
13. Fr. Robert Epping, CSC (2016–2022)
14. Br. Paul Bednarczyk, CSC (2022–present)

Provinces, Districts, and Vicariates

• United States Province of Priests and Brothers (USA)
  • District of Chile-Peru
• Midwest Province of Brothers (USA)
• Canadian Province of Priests and Brothers (Canada)
• Moreau Province (USA)
  • District of Brazil
• Province of East Africa
• Province of West Africa
• Sacred Heart of Jesus Province (Bangladesh)
• St. Joseph Province (Bangladesh)
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help Province (Haiti)
• Province of North East India
• South India Province
• Province of Tamil Nadu (India)
• St. Andre Province (India)
• Mother Province (France)

Notable members

Saints and Blesseds

• Saint André Bessette, CSC, "Miracle Man of Montreal" and the institute's first recognized Saint
• Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC, Founder of the Congregation

Members of the Hierarchy

• Archbishop Peter Joseph Hurth, CSC, Bishop of Dhaka (1894-1909), Bishop of Nueva Segovia (1913-1926) and archbishop of Bosra (1926-1935)
• Bishop Arthur "Bud" Colgan, CSC, Auxiliary Bishop of Chosica (Peru), Titular Bishop of Ampora
• Cardinal Patrick D'Rozario, CSC, former Archbishop of Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Bishop George Joseph Finnigan, CSC, Third Bishop of the Diocese of Helena in the state of Montana.
• Servant of God Archbishop Theotonius Amal Ganguly, CSC, second Archbishop of Dhaka
• Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria, IL
• Bishop Jorge Izaguirre Rafael, CSC, Prelate of Chuquibamba, Peru
• Servant of God Bishop Vincent J. McCauley, CSC, First Bishop of Fort Portal, Uganda
• Archbishop Marcos G. McGrath, CSC, former Archbishop of Panamá (1969–1994)
• Bishop Lumen Monteiro, CSC, First Bishop of Agartala
• John Francis Cardinal O'Hara, CSC, President of Notre Dame (1934–1939) and Archbishop of Philadelphia (1951–1960)
• Bishop Yves-Marie Péan, CSC., Bishop of Les Gonaïves, Haiti.
• Bishop Stephen Rotluanga, CSC, Bishop of Aizawl
• Archbishop Charles Asa Schleck, CSC, Titular Archbishop of Africa
• Bishop William Albert Wack, CSC, Bishop of Diocese of Pensacola–Tallahassee
• Bishop Paul E. Waldschmidt, CSC, President of the University of Portland (1962–1978) and Auxiliary Bishop of Portland (1978–1994)
• Bishop Patrick Neary, CSC, Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud
• Archbishop James Hector MacDonald, CSC, Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton, Ontario (1978-1982), Bishop of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (1982-1991), Archbishop of St. John's, Newfoundland (1991-2000)

Others

• Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, s. P., founder of The Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete
• Fr. Theodore "Ted" Hesburgh, CSC, President of Notre Dame (1952–1987) and Chair of the United States Civil Rights Commission (1969–1972)
• Servant of God Br. Flavian Laplante, CSC, missionary
• Fr. Julius Nieuwland, CSC, professor and inventor
• Venerable Fr. Patrick Peyton, CSC, "The Rosary Priest"
• Fr. John Zahm, CSC, scientist and explorer
• Fr. Richard William Timm, CSC, missionary, educator, zoologist, and development worker

Location

Holy Cross priests and brothers can be found across the globe, including these countries (date of first appearance in parentheses):

France (1820) United States (1841) Chile (1943) Haiti (1944)

Canada (1847) Italy (1850) Bangladesh (1853) India (1853)

Ghana (1957) Brazil (1958) Uganda (1958) Peru (1961)

Kenya (195–) Liberia (1950s?) Tanzania (2003)

Foreign Missions

The Mission of Holy Cross in Bangladesh

The first group of Holy Cross missionaries to reach India left England January 17, 1853. It was composed of three brothers, three sisters, one priest and one seminarian. (Two priests dropped out due to severe illness when the first attempt to sail in November 1852 failed due to storms.) The group arrived in Calcutta in May 1853. Fr. Verite took the sisters to Dhaka, while the brothers and seminarian went to Noakhali. Fr. Verite soon joined them as pastor of Noakhali, which included Agartala and Sylhet in its territory. Chittagong became the headquarters of Holy Cross in December 1853.

The East Bengal mission was called at the time, "unquestionably the most destitute in East Asia and perhaps in any other part of the world." Because it was such a difficult and dangerous place to live and work, no other religious congregation showed any interest in it. For many years, priests had to face difficult situations. For example, in 1897, the Bishop of Dhaka, Bishop Peter Joseph Hurth, saw his diocese destroyed by an earthquake and a typhoon. Though the mission was named East Bengal, the Church jurisdiction and the political territory or civil jurisdiction called East Bengal were quite different from each other. The Province of East Bengal was first created in 1905. The Church territory was officially called the Vicariate of East Bengal, set up in 1845 by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith at the Vatican. Its first superior was Bishop Thomas Olliffe, an Irish Jesuit. The Vicariate of East Bengal embraced the present-day Archdiocese of Dhaka, Diocese of Mymensingh, and Diocese of Chittagong, as well as a large part of Assam, the Arakan district (former name of the Rakhine State of western Burma, and the Diocese of Agartala in eastern India. It was a huge area, but when Holy Cross arrived in 1853, there were only three priests working there - a Portuguese Augustinian and two young Irish diocesan priests, both of whom were dead of disease by 1854. There were about 13,000 Catholics in the area. In Dhaka, there was no church or chapel at all under the jurisdiction of Rome.

The Mission of Holy Cross in Chile

The District of Chile is the longest-running mission still overseen by the United States Province. Three Holy Cross religious arrived in Santiago, Chile, on March 1, 1943, at the invitation of Cardinal José María Caro, Archbishop of Santiago (Chile), to administer Saint George's College. Fathers William Havey, Alfred Send, and Joseph Dougherty believed they were going to do university work. Little did they know that "college" in this context meant a school of first through 12th graders.

Today, Saint George's College serves 2,650 students. Its history is rich and is closely tied with the history of Chile, including the 1970s when the school was taken over by the military government and Holy Cross was ousted. The Congregation returned to the school in 1986. Strong faith formation and service have been a hallmark of Saint George's. Over the decades, the college has formed many influential leaders in Chilean society. Also Holy Cross' first Chilean vocation, Fr. Jorge Canepa, was a 1946 graduate of the school.

Additionally, the District administers Colegio Nuestra Señora de Andacollo, located in the older sector of Central Santiago. The Congregation took responsibility for the school in the 1970s, after its expulsion from Saint George's. The student body, numbering 1,100, is made up primarily of children from working-class families. With improvements to the physical plant and the strong Holy Cross commitment, the school has been able to reach new heights academically.

From the beginning, the mission of Holy Cross in Chile also included parish ministry and social service. Within three years of arriving, the Congregation had begun both its ministry at San Roque, a parish in the sector of Penalolen in Santiago, as well as its outreach to abandoned children in Santiago and later in Talagante. Today, the District administers two parishes in addition to San Roque: Nuestra Señora de Andacollo, in the same area as the school; and Nuestra Señora de la Merced, in Calle Larga, in the Diocese of San Felipe. The parishes are known for their youth ministry and social justice work. Then through Fundamor and Fundación Moreau, the District continues its work with abandoned children. Currently there are approximately 50 children in residence, ages 4 to 18. There is also a new prevention program ministering to 100 children that has been recognized as the first of its kind in Chile.

The Mission of Holy Cross in Mexico

Initially the members of the Congregation of Holy Cross were sent to Mexico from Texas. In 1972, Fr. Frederick Schmidt, CSC, was sent to Mexico for a "sabbatical" by Fr. Christopher O'Toole, CSC, the Provincial of the Southern Province at the time. In 1973 Fr. Fred assumed the pastoral responsibility for a large parish in Ahuacatlan, San Luis Potosí, Nuestro Padre Jesús. He served as pastor for 25 years. In 1998 when Fr. Francisco Garcia, a priest from the Diocese of Ciudad Valles, was appointed pastor, Fr. Fred became the pastor emeritus. When Fr. Schmidt died in 2003, he was buried at the parish in the crypt of the convent church that he helped build. With his death, Holy Cross withdrew from this parish, although one of its members has become a Holy Cross priest. The relationship with the parish and pastor continues to be one of friendship and Holy Cross offers occasional assistance.

In 1987, the Southern Province assumed the responsibility for the pastoral care of Santo Tomas Moro parish in the Archdiocese of Monterrey, Nuevo León. The parish grew dramatically and eventually gave birth to a new parish, Nuestra Madre Santisima de La Luz. Holy Cross opted to shift from Santo Tomas Moro to this new parish with greater needs. Holy Cross continues to serve this community.

In 1993 the Southern Province founded a program of vocation promotion and initial formation for young Mexican men who believe they are called to religious life and priesthood in Holy Cross. The Southern Province established a program for postulants and a program for professed seminarians. The novitiate for the formation program is in Peru.

In 1999, Holy Cross Family Ministries founded Family Rosary in México. Their offices and meeting rooms are located in an Archdiocesan pastoral center in San Francisco Javier parish, close to La Luz parish in the Archdiocese of Monterrey. Their offices serve as a "hub" for the growing Holy Cross apostolate of fostering family prayer, especially the rosary, as well as devotion to Mary throughout Mexico.

In 2000, the local Holy Cross community in Monterrey established an immersion program at La Luz parish. This program provides an intercultural experience of life and ministry with and for the poor. It is offered principally to students from Holy Cross universities, high schools, and parishes in the United States. One group of Chilean laywomen also participated. The program has been temporarily suspended due to the wave of violence in Mexico.

In 2010, Fr. Marín Hernández, CSC, and Fr. Paulino Antonio, CSC, the first two Mexicans to be ordained as Holy Cross priests, were assigned to Parroquia San José in Tamán, San Luis Potosí. The Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad Valles offered this parish to Holy Cross in part because of the indigenous community's need for pastoral care and evangelization. Frs. Hernández and Antonio speak Nahuatl, the language of the people, and Fr. Antonio comes from this indigenous group.

In 2011 the Holy Cross community in Mexico became a part of the newly formed U.S. Province of Priests and Brothers.

The Mission of Holy Cross in Peru

The mission of Holy Cross in Peru began with an exhortation of Pope John XXIII to religious orders to send missionaries to Latin America, and Holy Cross arrived in the north of Peru in Cartavio in September 1963. The presence soon included Chimbote in the early 1960s and expanded for a time to Puno and Tacna, on the border of Bolivia and Chile, and finally came to develop an organized presence and pastoral strategy in the Diocese of Chosica. The parish, El Señor de la Esperanza, is about the size of a small diocese in the U.S. Approximately 250,000 Catholics live in a parish that has 19 chapels. In 1982, within the boundaries of Lord of Hope Parish in Canto Grande, the Congregation established "Yancana Huasy" (literally "House of Work" in the language of the Incas). Yancana Huasy attends to the needs of children who live with physical and mental challenges, including Down syndrome, and their families.

The Mission of Holy Cross in Uganda

In November 1958, four Holy Cross priests arrived in Entebbe, Uganda to begin their ministry. The dioceses of Toro and Bunyoro were too large for the bishop to handle. He granted Holy Cross permission to minister to the people of Fort Portal and Butiti. Soon thereafter Holy Cross began administrating St. Leo's College, a high school in Kyegobe, Fort Portal diocese. Near Christmas of 1960, Holy Cross began its first parish at Bukwali. Around the end of February 1961, Cardinal Agaginian, the Armenian Patriarch at the time, told Fr. Christopher O'Toole, CSC, the superior general of Holy Cross, that missionary Vincent J. McCauley was to be made Bishop of Fort Portal. In 1967, a house, and later novitiate (in 1984), was built on the shores of Lake Saaka in Fort Portal. During the military dictatorship of Idi Amin, the Congregation decided at one point to leave the Diocese of Fort Portal. This proposal was later abandoned. Bishop McCauley died on November 1, 1982.

By 1962, the institute had begun accepting Ugandan religious aspirants to the community. Along with other religious institutes, they began a seminary in Kenya called Tangaza in 1986. By 1989, Holy Cross and a consortium of religious congregations and societies established the Queen of Apostles Philosophy Centre in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jinja ("PCJ") due largely to the political crises between Kenya and Uganda. It was then difficult for Ugandans to study at Tangaza. PCJ was to be a seminary for philosophical and religious studies for these (mostly Ugandan) postulants.

On August 17, 1991, Holy Cross ordained its first Ugandan priest, Fr. Fulgens Katende. Five Holy Cross Brother's and one priest died in the genocide of 1994. In Bugembe and Wanyange, two villages of the Jinja Diocese, a primary school and secondary were opened: Holy Cross Primary and Holy Cross Lakeview Secondary respectively. In 1998, Lakeview made world news when United States President Bill Clinton landed in a helicopter on the school's compound for discussions with Ugandan President Museveni. A third parish opened in 1994 at Kyrausozi.

In the new millennium the first [East] African district superior of Holy Cross was named in 2003. This was a step towards congregational and district maturity as the past nine superiors had been Americans.

Holy Cross educational institutions

Higher education

• University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana (1842)
• Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana (1844) (Sisters of the Holy Cross)
• St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas (1878)
• St. Joseph College, St. Joseph, New Brunswick Canada (1864)
• University of Portland, Portland, Oregon (1901)
• University of Holy Cross, New Orleans, Louisiana (1916) (Marianites of Holy Cross)
• King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (1946)
• Stonehill College, Easton, Massachusetts (1948)
• Notre Dame College, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1949)
• Holy Cross College, Notre Dame, Indiana (1966) (Brothers of Holy Cross)
• Holy Cross College, Agartala, India (2009)
• Notre Dame University Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2013)

Secondary schools

Bangladesh

• Saint Placid's High School, Chittagong, Bangladesh (1853)
• St. Gregory's High School & College, Dhaka, Bangladesh (school 1881, college 2016)
• Holy Cross High School, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1912)
• Saint Nicholas High School, Nagori, Bangladesh (1920)
• Biroidakuni High School, Mymensingh, Bangladesh (1941)
• Brother Andre High School, Noakhali, Bangladesh (c. 1940)
• Mariam Ashram High School, Chittagong, Bangladesh (1946)
• Notre Dame College, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1949)
• Notre Dame College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh (2014)
• Holy Cross College (Dhaka), Dhaka, Bangladesh (1950) (Sisters of the Holy Cross)
• Holy Cross Girls' High School, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1950) (Sisters of the Holy Cross)
• Udayan High School, Barisal, Bangladesh (1952)
• Saint Joseph Higher Secondary School, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1954)
• St. Joseph School of Industrial Trades, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1954)

Brazil

• Colégio Santa Maria, São Paulo, Brazil (1947) (Sisters of Holy Cross)
• Colégio Dom Amando, Santarém, Brazil (1966)
• Colégio Notre Dame, Campinas, Brazil (1961)
• Colégio Santa Cruz, São Paulo, Brazil (1952)

Canada

• Collège Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur (Montreal), Montreal, Quebec, Canada (1869)
• Notre Dame College School (Welland), Welland, Ontario, Canada
• Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School (St. Catharines, Ontario)
• Saint Joseph's Oratory, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Chile

• St. George's College, Santiago, Chile (1943)
• Colegio de Nuestra Senora de Andacollo, (Santiago), Santiago, Chile (1976)

France

• Saint-Michel de Picpus, Paris. France
• Saint-Michel de Saint-Mandé, Saint-Mandé. France
• Notre Dame de Garaison, Monléon-Magnoac. France
• Notre Dame d'Orveau, Nyoiseau. France
• Institution Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix, Neuilly-sur-Seine (independent since 1903)

Ghana

• St. Augustine's College (Ghana), Cape Coast, Ghana
• St John's Secondary School, Sekondi Takoradi, Ghana
• St Brother Andre Senior High School, Kasoa, Ghana

Haiti

• Collège Notre-Dame, Cap Haitian, Haiti (1904)
• École Père Pérard, Plaisance, Haiti
• École Père Joseph Lepévédic, Limbé, Haiti

India

• Holy Cross Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India (1963)
• Notre Dame of Holy Cross School [CBSE ], Gundukallur, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. [2008]
• Holy Cross International School [CBSE], Salem, Tamil Nadu, India (2021)
• Holy Cross School, Whitefield, Bangalore, India
• Holy Cross School, Agartala, Tripura India (1970)(CISCE)
• Holy Cross School, Tuikarmaw, Tripura (TBSE)
• Holy Cross School, Katalcherra, Tripura (TBSE)
• Holy Cross School, Panisagar, Tripura (TBSE)
• Holy Cross School, Kumarghat, Tripura (TBSE)
• Notredame Holy Cross School, Moharpara, Tripura (TBSE)
• St. Andre English Medium School, Bodhjungnagar, Tripura (CBSE)
• Good Shepherd School, Jongksha, Meghalaya (MBOSE)
• Holy Cross School, Umkiang, Meghalaya (MBOSE)
• Holy Cross School, Mawkynrew, Meghalaya (MBOSE)
• Jeevan Jyothi Technical Institute, Honavar, India
• Holy Cross School, Mizoram, India
• Holy Cross School, Trichy, TN (2002)
• Holy Cross School, Aymanam, Kerala (2003)
• Holy Cross School, Ghanpur, AP (2003)
• St Louis School, Dahisar, Mumbai (2002)
• Abhayadhama, Human Development Centre, Whitefield, Bangalore, Karnataka State (1976)
• Holy Cross School, Ballia, U.P, India

Liberia

• St. Patrick's High School (Liberia)

Uganda

• Holy Cross Lake View Senior Secondary School (Wanyange), Jinja District (1993)

United States

• Holy Cross High School, New Orleans, Louisiana (1849)
• Academy of the Holy Cross, Kensington, Maryland (1868) (Sisters of the Holy Cross)
• Holy Trinity High School, Chicago, Illinois (1910)
• Cathedral High School (Indianapolis), Indianapolis, Ind. (1918–1972; 2011 reaffiliated)
• Reitz Memorial High School, Evansville, Indiana (1925)
• Notre Dame High School (West Haven, Connecticut) (1946)
• Gilmour Academy, Gates Mills, Ohio (1946)
• Notre Dame High School, Sherman Oaks, California (1947)
• St. Edward High School, Lakewood, Ohio, (1949)
• Holy Family High School, Port Allen, Louisiana (1949) (Marianites of Holy Cross)
• Archbishop Hoban High School, Akron, Ohio (1953)
• St. Francis High School, Mountain View, California (1955)
• Notre Dame High School, Fairfield, Connecticut (1955)
• Notre Dame College Preparatory, Niles, Illinois (1955)
• Holy Cross High School, Flushing, New York (1955)
• Holy Cross of San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas (1957)
• St. Edmond's Academy, Wilmington, Delaware (1959)
• Bishop McNamara High School, Forestville, Maryland, (1964)
• Moreau Catholic High School, Hayward, California (1965)
• Holy Cross High School, Waterbury, Connecticut (1968)
• San Juan Diego Catholic High School, Austin, Texas (2019)

Primary schools

Uganda

• Holy Cross Primary School (Bugembe), Jinja District
• Saint Andrew's Primary School (Wanyange), Jinja District
• Saint Jude's Primary School, Jinja District

United States

• St. Edward High School, Lakewood, Ohio (1949)
• St. Ignatius Martyr, Austin, Texas (1940)
• Gilmour Academy, Gates Mills, Ohio (1946)
• Holy Cross School, New Orleans, Louisiana (1849)
• St. John Vianney School, Goodyear, Arizona (1992)
• St. Joseph Grade School, South Bend, Indiana (1854)
• Holy Cross School, South Bend, Indiana (1929)
• St. Adalbert Catholic School, South Bend, Indiana
• Christ the King Catholic School, South Bend, Indiana (1953)
• Holy Redeemer Catholic School, Portland, Oregon (1908)

Parishes

Bangladesh

• Holy Cross Church, Luxmibazar, Dhaka
• Church of St. Augustine of Hippo, Mathbari
• St. Joseph Church, Srimangal
• Our Lady of Holy Rosary Cathedral, Chittagong
• Fatima Rani Church, Bandarban
• Shanti Raj Girja Catholic Church, Thanchi
• Church of the Sacred Heart, Gournadi
• Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Khalibpur
• Corpus Christi Church, Jalchatra
• St. Paul's Church, Pirgacha
• St. George's Church, Mariamnagar

Brazil

• Paroquia São José do Jaguaré, São Paulo, SP
• Paroquia São Felipe Apostolo, Maua, SP

Canada

• St. Kevin's Church, Welland, ON
• Holy Name Parish, Toronto, ON
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Sherwood Park, AB
• St. Ann Parish, Toronto, ON
• Unité pastorale de Saint-Laurent, Saint-Laurent, QC
• Unité pastorale du Saint-Esprit, Cap-Pelé, NB
• Saint-Gregoire-le-Grand, Mont Saint-Gregoire, QC
• Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Saint-Polycarp, QC
• Saint-Martin de Val-Bélair, Québec, QC

Chile

• Parroquia San Roque, Santiago (1949)
• Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Andacollo, Santiago (1977)
• Parroquia Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Calle Larga (1989)

France

• Paroisse Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix, Le Mans

Haiti

• Sainte Rose de Lima, Pilate
• Saint Charles Borromée, Le Borgne
• Saint Albert Le Grande, Ravine Trompette, Pilate
• Sainte Marie Madeleine, Duchity
• Notre Dame de l'Esperance/ND du Mont Carmel, Magagnosse/Labadie
• Notre Dame de Guadalupe, Waney, Port-au-Prince
• Saint Jules, Petit Bourg du Borgne
• Paroisse Sainte Elizabeth, Caracol

India

• St. Joseph Church, Agartala, Tripura
• St. Andre Mission, Bodhjunagar, Tripura
• Good Shepherd Church, Kathalcherra, Tripura
• St. Paul's Catholic Church, Kumarghat, Tripura
• Immaculate Conception Church, Moharpara, Tripura
• St. Mary's Church, Tuikarmaw, Tripura
• Holy Cross Parish, Bagbasa, Tripura
• Good Shepherd Parish, Jongksha, Meghalaya
• Holy Cross Parish, Mawkynrew, Meghalaya
• Holy Cross Parish, Umkiang, Meghalaya
• Holy Cross Church, Champhai, Mizoram
• St. John Parish, Khawzawl, Mizoram
• Holy Cross Parish, Koloriang, Arunachal Pradesh
• St. Sebastian Church, Loliem, Goa
• St Vincent De Paul Church, Katapady, Karnataka
• Nirmal Matha Church, Abadi Ghanpur, Andhra Pradesh
• Christ the King Parish, Pune, Maharashtra
• St. Joseph Church, Chengalam, Kottayam, Kerala
• St. Louis Parish Centre, Dahisar, Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Dindigal, Tamil Nadu
• St. Sebastian Church, Idukki, Kerala

Kenya

• Holy Cross Parish Community, Dandora, Nairobi

Mexico

• Parroquia Nuestra Madre de la Luz, Monterrey, Nuevo León (1996)
• Parroquia San José, Tamán, San Luis Potosí (2011)

Peru

• Parroquia El Señor de la Esperanza, Canto Grande, Lima

Tanzania

• St. Brendan Parish, Kitete

Uganda

• Holy Cross Parish Community, Bugembe, Jinja
• St. Jude Thaddeus Parish Community, Kyarusozi, Fort Portal

United States

• Christ the King Parish, South Bend, Indiana (1933)
• Holy Cross Parish (1929) and St. Stanislaus Parish (1899), South Bend, Indiana
• Holy Cross Parish, South Easton, Massachusetts (1967)
• Holy Redeemer Parish, Portland, Oregon (2002)
• Sacred Heart Parish, Colorado Springs, Colorado (1984) (Including Mission Parishes of Holy Rosary and Our Lady of Perpetual Help)
• Sacred Heart Parish, Notre Dame, Indiana (1842)
• Sacred Heart Saint Francis de Sales Parish, Bennington, Vermont (1854 & 1880)
• St. Adalbert Parish, South Bend (2003) and St. Casimir Parish, South Bend, Indiana (1897)
• St. Ignatius Martyr Parish, Austin, Texas (1938)
• St. John Vianney Parish, Goodyear, Arizona (1981)
• St. Joseph Parish, South Bend, Indiana (1853)
• St. André Bessette Parish, Portland, Oregon (2001)
• St. John the Evangelist Parish, Viera, Florida (2001)

Other

• Ave Maria Press
• Holy Cross Family Ministries
  • Family Theater Productions
  • Family Rosary Crusade

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Congregation of Holy Cross — A body of priests and lay brothers constituted in the religious state by the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and bearing the common name of Religious of Holy Cross. The essential purpose of the congregation is threefold: the perfection of individual members by the practice of the evangelical counsels; the sanctification of their fellow-men by preaching the Divine word, especially in country places and foreign missions; and the instruction and Christian education of youth. This religious body was in its inception a by-product of the great French Revolution, or, rather, of the reaction from the frenzied hatred of religion and religious education that marked the decade from the meeting of the States General in 1789 to the end of the Directory in 1799. As at present constituted, the congregation is the result of Rome's officially uniting two distinct French societies, the Brothers of St. Joseph, founded at Ruillé in 1820, and the Auxiliary Priests of Le Mans, established in 1835. An excellent summary of the purposes and original activities of the amalgamated associations is given in the following letter, dated 4 May, 1840, and addressed to Pope Gregory XVI by Msgr. Bouvier, Bishop of Le Mans: "Basile-Antoine Moreau, honorary canon, and former professor of theology and holy scripture in our diocesan seminary, has, with the consent of the present bishop, established a house near the city of Le Mans, and has there assembled certain priests burning with love for souls and enamoured of poverty and obedience, who follow the community life under his direction, and are always ready to announce the word of God, to hear confessions, to conduct retreats for communities, etc. They are called Auxiliary Priests and are already fifteen in number. They live on voluntary offerings and on the profits accruing from the board and tuition of a hundred pupils. As the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine do not take charge of establishments unless they can live at least three together and annually receive sufficient support amounting to $120 each they cannot be procured for schools in the country parishes and the small towns. A pious pastor of Ruillé, Jacques-François Dujarié, about the year 1820, gathered into his presbytery a number of virtuous young men, and prepared them to become primary teachers for the parishes in which the services of the Christian Brothers were unattainable. Thus were founded the Brothers of St. Joseph. The present Bishop of Le Mans, seeing that the novitiate of these Brothers could not be suitably maintained in the country district, took measures to transfer them to the episcopal city. With the consent of the founder who was still alive, he gave to the congregation as superior the aforenamed Father Moreau. The latter assumed the heavy burden and united the novitiate to the Auxiliary Priests. This new institute already numbers eighty professed and forty-five novices."

Father Moreau became the first superior general of the congregation, a position which he held until 1866, seven years prior to his death. In addition to his beneficent labours as head of his own community, he had founded, in 1841, the Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Cross, a religious body destined to accomplish much for the glory of God. Father Dujarié, also, was the founder of the Sisters of Providence, a society of religious women whose activities are well known on both sides of the Atlantic. His name is perpetuated in Dujarié Institute, Notre Dame (Indiana), a house for the formation of young men aspiring to the Brotherhood of Holy Cross. The name of the Congregation sprang naturally from that of the commune in which the home of the Auxiliary Priests was situated, it being called after the old church of Holy Cross, erected in the sixth century by St. Bertrand, Bishop of Le Mans. In the early years of the Congregation, the priests and professed clerics were called Salvatorists, and the professed brothers, Josephites; but these appellatives were discarded by the general chapter of 1872, since which date the two branches of the congregation have been styled simply Fathers and Brothers of Holy Cross. The letters C.S.C., following their individual names, are abbreviations of Congregatio Sanctæ Crucis.

The new institute responded so well to the needs of the period and grew so rapidly in numbers that, seventeen years after the date of Msgr. Bouvier's letter to Gregory XVI, it received the formal endorsement of the Apostolic See. The constitution and rules of the congregation were solemnly approved by Rome on 13 May, 1857. According to this constitution, of which subsequent modifications by decrees of general chapters have been authorized by the Holy See, the congregation is governed by a superior general, always a priest, who is elected for life by the general chapter, and who is aided by four assistant-generals, two of them priests, and two brothers. These assistants are elected by the general chapter for a term of six years. The Superior General is represented in Rome by a resident procurator general. This functionary, like the assistant-generals, is elected by the general chapter for a six years' term, as are also the provincials or superiors of the different provinces into which the congregation is territorially divided. The general chapter, which convenes every six years, is composed of the officials already mentioned, and of delegates, both priests and brothers, from each province, the number of delegates being proportioned to the numerical strength of the religious whom they represent. Each separate province is governed by a provincial and his council, consisting of two priests and two brothers. The provincial chapter, held annually, and composed of the provincial, his council, and representatives from each house under their jurisdiction, legislates for the affairs of the province in much the same way as the general chapter does for the whole congregation. Finally, in each house of the congregation there is a local council, consisting of the superior and of members varying in number according to the muster-roll of the religious resident therein.

In the more restricted sphere of the individual life, the Fathers and Brothers of Holy Cross assist in common every day at meditation, holy Mass, particular examen, beads, spiritual reading, and night prayer. The daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament, as well as the recitation of the Divine Office by the fathers, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin by the teaching brothers, and the saying thrice daily of the seven Our Fathers and Hail Marys by the brothers engaged in manual labour, is left as to time to the convenience of the individual religious. The weekly exercises of piety include the chapter of accusation (the avowing to the community of one's exterior infractions of the rules), the Way of the Cross, and an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Previous to the promulgation, in 1905, by Pius X, of the decree "Sacra Tridentina Synodus," relative to frequent and daily Communion, the religious of Holy Cross were obliged by their rule to go to Confession every week and to receive Holy Communion at least once a week. Since the publication of the decree in question, its proscriptions have been adopted by the authorities of the congregation and form the normal practice of its members. Once a month, there is a retreat of one day with spiritual direction; and, once a year, a retreat of a week's duration.

In the earlier decade of the congregation's history, its members were recruited principally from the ranks of the students attending the colleges and schools conducted by the fathers and brothers, with occasional vocations discovered in the course of missions, triduums, and retreats preached by members of the congregation. Later on, each province was supplied with a "little seminary," or house of preparatory studies, specifically designed for the education of boys or young men manifesting an inclination for the religious life. Holy Cross Seminary and Dujarié Institute at Notre Dame, Indiana, are examples of such establishments for the preliminary training of prospective fathers and brothers. The novitiate lasts two years. In so far as ecclesiastical recruits are concerned, they enter upon their novitiate only on the completion of their collegiate course and their attainment of the baccalaureate degree. Their secular studies are then intermitted until they have made their religious profession, when they begin a four years' course in theology and the other branches of ecclesiastical science proper to a regular seminary. Save by exception, becoming more and more rare, they do no professorial work until after their ordination to the priesthood. Similar precautions are taken with the formation of the novice brothers prior to entrusting them with the function of teaching.

Mention must be made of the mission in Algeria, which was one of the Congregation's earliest establishments. The work accomplished for the Church in the French possessions of Northern Africa about the middle of the nineteenth century, included the humble but essential task of furnishing primary education to the young. During a third of a century, the brothers of the congregation devoted themselves to this work in different portions of Algeria with an ardour and success that won for them the affection and esteem of the people, and the generous praise of their ecclesiastical superiors. These latter desired the permanent residence of one of the fathers in each of the houses confided to the congregation, but the home government repeatedly refused to sanction such a proceeding, alleging that "the Algerian budget did not provide for the additional expense." The brothers were obliged to leave the African mission, shortly after the close of the Franco-Prussian war, in consequence of the policy, even then inaugurated in some of France's colonies, of laicizing the schools. Regrettable as this abandonment of their colonial mission was felt to be, it was of minor importance when compared with the trial to which the congregation was subjected a quarter of a century later in the home country, France itself. The activities of Holy Cross in the land of its birth had, in the course of half a dozen decades, become practically restricted to educational work, primary and secondary. When the Law of Associations was passed in 1901, the fathers and brothers were conducting a number of flourishing colleges, academies, and schools in different departments of France. The College of Notre Dame de Ste Croix, at Neuilly-sur-Seine, alone had an average attendance of from six to eight hundred students, and the excellence of its courses was attested by the uniform success of its graduates in passing the governmental examinations for degrees. On the passage of the law in question, application was at once made to the French government for the "authorization" of the congregation; but, as had been feared and foreseen, the application was unsuccessful. Schools and colleges were closed, the buildings and properties were "liquidated," liquidation in this case meaning confiscation; and, in 1903, the province or Holy Cross had been reduced to a handful of aged and toil-worn brothers leading, with one of the fathers as the chaplain, a precarious existence at Angers. Fortunately the Religious of Holy Cross, when expelled from France, had other provinces of their order in which they could lead, though in exile, the community denied them at home. Accordingly, numbers of them went cheerfully to Bengal, Canada, and the United States. The Province of Eastern Bengal, coextensive with the Diocese of Dacca, is the special field of foreign missions confided by the Holy See to the Congregation of Holy Cross. The field is a large one, the area of the diocese being more than 50,000 square miles, with a population of 17,000,000, the overwhelming majority of the people being Hindus and Mussulmans. The connection of Holy Cross with this portion of the missionary field dates back to 1852, some forty years before Dacca was made an episcopal see. In 1909, Bengal received its fourth bishop from the ranks of the congregation. In the city of Dacca the fathers are devoting part of their time to the work of secondary education; in the country districts the usual routine of foreign missionary life is followed: travelling from point to point, catechizing, baptizing, preaching, instructing converts, building modest chapels, and serving on occasion as medical doctor, judge, and peacemaker. The establishment by the congregation, in Rome, of an Apostolic college specifically designed for the needs of the mission gave, in 1909, bright promise for its future prosperity.

The Canadian province of the congregation owes its origin to the reiterated requests made to Father Moreau by the saintly Bishop Bourget, of Montreal, in 1841 and the several years following. The first band of fathers and brothers reached St. Laurent, near Montreal, in 1847. The early years in Canada were marked by sacrifice and hardship, but the growth of the congregation was encouragingly steady. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, and first decade of the twentieth, St. Laurent College was habitually attended by from two to four hundred students, many of them from the New England States and New York. Of these American students very many entered the priesthood. In addition to the college, the parish, and the parochial schools at St. Laurent, the congregation has, in the geographical province of Quebec, colleges at Côte des Neiges, Farnham, St Cesaire, Sorel, and St. Aimé; large schools at Hochelaga, Côte des Neiges, Ste. Geneviève, and Pointe Claire; a novitiate at Ste. Geneviève; and a house of studies for professed ecclesiastics attending Laval University in Quebec city. The most notably effective work of Holy Cross in Canada, however, has been accomplished in New Brunswick, where St. Joseph's College, established at Memamcook in 1864, by Father Camille Lefebvre, has been the principal agency in raising the French Acadians from the condition of "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to one of professional, industrial, and social equality with their fellow-citizens of other nationalities. English-speaking Catholics in New Brunswick are scarcely less indebted to St. Joseph's.

The oldest, most extensive, and most important existing province of the congregation is the United States. Its story is largely that of Notre Dame, Indiana, of which the other establishments of Holy Cross throughout the province are offshoots. Such establishments are colleges in Oregon, Wisconsin, Ohio, Louisiana, and Texas; schools, high and primary, in Fort Wayne (Indiana), Chicago (Illinois), and Austin (Texas), parishes in Chicago, Portland (Oregon), Watertown (Wisconsin), New Orleans (Louisiana), Austin (Texas), and South Bend (Indiana); and Holy Cross College, Washington, D.C., the house of studies for the young clerics of the congregation attending the Catholic University. As for Notre Dame, Indiana, widely known as the home of the "Ave Maria," Notre Dame University, and the Laetare Medal, its history dates back to 1842, synchronizing during its first half-century with the life-story of Father Edward Sorin, its founder. A brief word should perhaps be said of two institutions which serve as splendid memorials of Notre Dame's founder and of the spirit animating the Congregation of Holy Cross as a whole. The first is the "Ave Maria," a weekly magazine devoted to the honour of the Blessed Virgin. Established in 1865, and steadily growing in importance and prestige, it has attained a circulation practically coextensive with the English-speaking world. The second is the Laetare Medal. An adaptation of the papal custom of conferring the Golden Rose, this gold medal is annually presented by the University of Notre Dame, on the mid-Lenten Sunday, to an American lay Catholic distinguished in literature, science, art, commerce, philanthropy, sociology, or other field of beneficent activity. The first recipient of the Laetare Medal (1883) was John Gilmary Shea; the latest (1909) was Frances Christine Fisher Tiernan, the novelist who has achieved notable distinction as Christian Reid. Notre Dame has been tried by cholera, fire, financial stringency, and multifarious other hardships, but the spirit of its founder was perpetuated in his successors, and its growth has been uniformly progressive. In 1842, Notre Dame du Lac was a virgin wilderness whose only note of civilization was a log chapel built by the proto-priest of the United States, Father Stephen Badin; in 1909, the name Notre Dame denotes a magnificent group of more than a score of handsome edifices: collegiate church, central administration building of the university, half a dozen residence halls, institutes of science, technology, and electrical and mechanical engineering, theatre, gymnasium, seminary, novitiate, provincial residence, community house, printing and publishing offices, and other accessory structures. It is, moreover, the site of the mother-house of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the residence of Father Sorin's successor as superior general.

SORIN, Circular Letters (Notre Dame, Ind., 1880); MOREAU, Basile-Antoine Moreau et ses Oeuvres (Paris, 1900); POIRIER, Le Pere Lefebvre et L'Acadie (Montreal, 1898); CORBY, Memoirs of Chaplain Life (Chicago, 1893); IDEM, Golden Jubilee of Notre Dame University (Chicago, 1895).

External links

• Official international website
• The Brothers of Holy Cross official website
• United States Province of Priests and Brothers (USA) official website
• District of Chile
• District of Peru Archived 27 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Midwest Province of Brothers
• Province Canadienne de la Congrégation de Sainte-Croix
• South-West Province of Brothers
  • District of Brazil
• Province of South India
• Vicariate of France
• Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Congregation

Books and publications

• Gift of the Cross Lenten Reflections in the Holy Cross Tradition
• The Cross, Our Only Hope; Catholic Bestseller available from Ave Maria Press
• Basil Moreau; biography available from Ave Maria Press
• Vincent McCauley, C.S.C.:Bishop of the Poor, Apostle of East Africa; biography available from Ave Maria Press