HOLY CROSS, PRIESTS OF

HOLY CROSS, PRIESTS OF, are members of the religious congregation of the same name (in Latin, Congregatio a Sancta Cruce). The congregation was formed in 1837 by Basil Anthony Moreau near Le Mans, France, to assist in local parishes, hospitals, and educational institutions and to work in foreign missions. In 1841 Edward Sorin, C.S.C., introduced the congregation into the United States and the following year founded the University of Notre Dame near South Bend, Ind. The Priests of Holy Cross teach and assist at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Stonehill College in North Easton, Mass.; and the University of Portland in Portland, Oreg.; and from 1865 to 1970 they published the popular weekly magazine The Ave Maria. They serve as parish priests in several dioceses throughout the United States and assist as missionaries in Asia, Africa, and South America. There were approximately 1,100 priests in the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1974, more than half of whom are members of the three provinces of the United States. By 2000, there were approximately 1,700 members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, made up of roughly 900 priests and 800 brothers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, Philip, C.S.C. A More Perfect Legacy: A Portrait of Brother Ephrem O'Dwyer, C.S.C., 1888–1978. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.

Sorin, Edward. Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992.

Thomas E.Blantz,C.S.C./a. r.

See alsoCatholicism ; Missions, Foreign .