ST. louis church, dahisar

In 1820, Rev. Jacques Dujarié (1767-1838) began assembling a group of young men to instruct the youth in the countryside of Northwestern France. At the time, French society, including the Church, was still wrestling with the upheaval caused by the French Revolution (1789-1799).

In 1820, Rev. Jacques Dujarié (1767-1838) began assembling a group of young men to instruct the youth in the countryside of Northwestern France. At the time, French society, including the Church, was still wrestling with the upheaval caused by the French Revolution (1789-1799).

During the Revolution, Church property had been seized, priests had been arrested and executed, and religious communities had been expelled. The departure of many religious also meant the closure of many schools. As a result, almost a whole generation in France had grown up with little to no formal education in general, let alone in matters of faith.

Fr. Dujarié, who had been ordained in secret during the Revolution, provided the young men with rudimentary training and then sent them out to rural parishes to teach. These young men became the Brothers of St. Joseph.

As he grew in age and his health declined, Fr. Dujarié turned over the leadership of the brothers on August 31, 1835, to a young and energetic priest named Basile Moreau.

By this time, Blessed Basile Moreau (1799-1873), who had been ordained in 1821, had already organized a group of Auxiliary Priests from among his brother priests in the Diocese of Le Mans. These Auxiliary Priests were to assist the diocese by preaching parish missions and by instructing the youth, particularly in preparatory seminaries and colleges.

For the sake of their common mission as educators in the faith, Moreau joined the Brothers of St. Joseph and Auxiliary Priests on March 1, 1837, in the Fundamental Act of Union. The newly established Association of Holy Cross took its name from the Sainte-Croix neighborhood in Le Mans in which it was formed.

Moreau’s vision for Holy Cross was not complete until 1841 when he founded a group of sisters to work with the brothers and the priests. Moreau envisioned the sisters, brothers, and priests of Holy Cross compromising one holy family in imitation of the Holy Family.

Although ordained a diocesan priest, Moreau wanted Holy Cross to be a religious community, conformed to Jesus Christ and bounded to one another by the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The first brothers professed their religious vows in 1836. Moreau himself, along with four other priests, made his religious profession on August 15, 1840. The first sisters professed vows four years later in 1844.

Moreau believed that the work that God had entrusted to Holy Cross extended beyond the borders of France to the rest of the world. Within a few short years of founding Holy Cross, Moreau sent his priests, brothers, and sisters from France to Algeria (1840), the United States (1841), Canada (1847), Italy (1850), and East Bengal, or present-day India and Bangladesh (1852).

On May 13, 1857, Pope Pius IX approved the first Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross. This approbation made Holy Cross an official religious congregation under the direct authority of the Holy See. As part of its approval, however, the Vatican required that the sisters be in a separate congregation with a separate governance structure from the priests and the brothers. That same year, on June 17, the Congregation’s Conventual Church of Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix was consecrated in Le Mans.

In 1903, all religious orders in France were suppressed, and North America became the focus of Holy Cross’s subsequent expansion. Numerous educational institutions, parishes, and other ministries were founded in the United States and Canada during these decades.

Beginning again in the 1943, Holy Cross expanded its work around the world, establishing missions in Chile (1943), Brazil (1943), Haiti (1944), Ghana (1957), Uganda (1958), Peru (1963), Kenya (1978), Mexico (1987), and Tanzania (1999). With the most recent establishment of a religious presence in the Philippines (2008), Holy Cross today serves in 16 different countries on five continents.

On September 15, 2007, Blessed Basile Moreau was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church. Three years later, the first Holy Cross saint, Saint André Bessette, known as the “Miracle Man of Montreal,” was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 17, 2010.

Timeline of Events in Holy Cross Congregation History

December 9, 1767 – Rev. Jacques Dujarié born in Rennes-en-Grenouilles
1789-1799 – French Revolution 
December 26, 1795 – Dujarié secretly ordained a priest in Paris
February 11, 1799 – Rev. Basile Moreau born in Laigné-en-Belin
September 1820 – Dujarié establishes the Brothers of St. Joseph to teach in rural parishes
August 12, 1821 – Moreau ordained a priest for the Diocese of Le Mans
1823 – Dujarié invites Moreau to give the annual retreat to the Brothers of St. Joseph
August 1835 – Moreau founds the Auxiliary Priests to preach parish missions, provide parochial assistance, and teach in the Diocese of Le Mans
August 31, 1835 – Dujarié turns over the leadership of the Brothers of St. Joseph to Moreau
November 1, 1835 – Moreau moves the brothers’ Novitiate to Sainte-Croix, which would become the headquarters of his new religious congregation
August 1836 – First Brothers of St. Joseph make their Profession of Final Vows
November 1836 – Moreau founds the boarding school of Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix in Le Mans
March 1, 1837 – Moreau establishes the Association of Holy Cross by uniting together the Brothers of St. Joseph and the Auxiliary Priests
February 17, 1838 – Dujarié dies
April 28, 1840 – Holy Cross inaugurates its first foreign mission as Moreau sends religious to Algeria
May 1840 – Ground broken on the Congregation’s conventual church at Sainte-Croix
August 15, 1840 – Moreau makes his own Profession of Final Vows to Bishop Bouvier, then receives the Final Professions of four priests
1841 – Moreau establishes the sisters of Holy Cross, known as the Marianites, thus completing the religious family of Holy Cross
August 5, 1841 – First missionaries to the United States depart 
August 9, 1845 – Alfred Bessette (later Brother André) born in Quebec, Canada
April 25, 1847 – First missionaries to Canada depart 
November 9, 1850 – Two foundations established in Rome
November 27, 1852 – First missionaries to East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh and India) depart
May 13, 1857 – The Constitutions of Holy Cross are approved by the Holy See, making the Holy Cross priests and brothers an official Religious Congregation (with the sisters separated as their own community)
June 17, 1857 –The Congregation’s conventual church in Sainte-Croix is consecrated
June 14, 1866 – Moreau resigns as Superior General and is succeeded by Bishop Pierre Dufal
1868 – Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., elected Superior General
January 20, 1873 – Moreau dies 
February 2, 1874 – Br. André Bessette makes his Profession of Final Vows
October 1893 – Rev. Gilbert Français, C.S.C., becomes Superior General on the death of Fr. Sorin
October 19, 1904 – Br. André opens the original Oratory to St. Joseph in Montreal, Canada
1926 – Rev. James W. Donahue, C.S.C., becomes Superior General on the resignation of Fr. Français
January 6, 1937 – Br. André dies
1938 – Rev. Albert Cousineau, C.S.C., elected Superior General
1940 – Br. André cause for canonization opened in Montreal
March 1, 1943 – First missionaries arrive to Chile
December 1943 – First missionaries arrive to Brazil
September 8, 1944 – First missionaries arrive to Haiti
1950 – Rev. Christopher O’Toole, C.S.C., elected Superior General
1954 – Holy Cross Generalate moved to Rome
1955 – Moreau’s cause for sainthood introduced in Rome
1955 – Main Basilica of the Oratory of St. Joseph consecrated
December 1957 – First missionaries arrive to Ghana
November 4, 1958 – First missionaries arrive to Uganda
1962 – Rev. Germaine-Marie Lalande, C.S.C., elected Superior General
September 1963 – First missionaries arrive to Peru
1974 – Rev. Thomas O. Barrosse, C.S.C., elected Superior General
1978 – Congregation’s work in East Africa expands to Kenya
1978 – Br. André declared Venerable by Pope Paul VI
1986 – Rev. Claude Grou, C.S.C., elected Superior General
1987 – Congregation accepts responsibility for parish in Mexico
1988 – Current Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross approved by the General Chapter
May 23, 1982 – Br. André beatified by Blessed John Paul II in Rome
1998 – Rev. Hugh Cleary, C.S.C., elected Superior General
2000 – Congregation’s work in East Africa expands to Tanzania
2001 – Rev. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., declared Servant of God
April 12, 2003 – Moreau Declared Venerable by Blessed John Paul II
2006 – Bishop Vincent McCauley declared Servant of God
2006 – Bishop Theotonius Amal Ganguly declared Servant of God
September 15, 2007 – Moreau beatified in Le Mans, France
2009 – Br. Flavian Laplante, C.S.C., declared Servant of God
2010 – Rev. Richard V. Warner, C.S.C., elected Superior General
October 17, 2010 – Br. André canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, becoming first canonized saint in Holy Cross
2016 –2022 Rev. Robert Epping, C.S.C., elected Superior General
2022-Present – Br Paul Bednarczyk

For more details visit Congregation of Holy Cross on Wikipedia.