Founder of Holy Cross Beatified: Church unites in Celebration of Blessed Basil Anthony Marie Moreau
By Patricia Tennant, Principal

On Wednesday afternoon, September 12, Salvador Chavez and I began a journey to
Le Mans, France, that would transform our lives as Holy Cross educators. Along with one thousand Holy Cross priests, brothers, sisters and other lay ministers of Holy Cross, we witnessed the beatification of Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, the founding father of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

This was an event that has been anticipated for over 60 years when Father Moreau’s cause for beatification was first introduced by the diocese of Le Mans in 1946. Ten years later the cause was presented for consideration by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. On April 28, 2006, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI approved the promulgation of the miracle attributed to the intercession of Father Basil Moreau, preparing the way for his beatification on September 15, 2007. Blessed Father Moreau’s feast day will be January 20, the date of his death and rebirth in everlasting life.

And so it was that we gathered in Le Mans, one Holy Cross family, united not by culture or language, but by a common vision and mission. We saw old friends from the South-West Province and made new friends from Ghana and Bangladesh, Haiti and Peru, India, and Washington, D.C. We were graciously welcomed by the mayor and Bishop of Le Mans as well as the Prime Minister of France. The beatification celebration for Father Moreau was the first such ceremony to occur outside of Rome and marked an historical event for our congregation and our church.

We opened the three-day ceremony with a visit to Father Moreau’s birthplace in Laigne-en-Belin, where the town greeted us with a special reception hosted by the mayor. We also visited Sainte-Croix, where Father Moreau founded the first Holy Cross High School and opened his church, Eglise Notre Dame de Sainte-Croix. It was there in Sainte Croix that he started his ministry and formed his unique vision of education.

The Beatification ceremony on Saturday was the pinnacle of the celebration. Holy Cross bishops from around the world, cardinals from Rome and the US, and dignitaries from France gathered together to celebrate the life of Father Basil Moreau. We culminated the three-day celebration with a beautiful mass of Thanksgiving, presided by Cardinal McCarrick of Washington D.C.

The following Thursday, September 20, we celebrated the beatification at Saint Francis at our annual Holy Cross Assembly. To help our students understand the importance of this event, we opened the family album and took a journey back in time to review the life and work of Blessed Father Moreau and to explore the history of Holy Cross. I would like to take you on this same journey to introduce you to the man who not only founded the Congregation of Holy Cross, but changed the way the world viewed education.

The life and legacy of Basil Anthony Marie Moreau
The man who would become blessed, just one step from canonization, started from very humble beginnings. Basil Moreau was born in Laigne-en-Belin, a small town in the Diocese of Le Mans, on February 11, 1799, in post-revolutionary France. One of 14 children, he lived on a farm until his parents enrolled him in the seminary at Le Mans at the age of nine. Ordained at 22, he began his teaching career at the seminary, developing a vision of education that challenged the traditional elitism of French schools.

His vision, to educate students holistically in preparation for the real world, is the source of our motto “to educate hearts and minds to serve the world.” In 1835, he united the Brothers of Saint Joseph and the Auxiliary Priests to form the Congregation of Holy Cross. A few years later he founded a congregation of women religious to add to the Holy Cross family. During his years as Congregational Superior, he sent Holy Cross religious across the world- to North and South America, Africa and Asia, as well as throughout Europe. In 1841, Father Edward Sorin and five Brothers journeyed to Indiana to establish the University of Notre Dame while the Sisters founded nearby St. Mary’s College. From these beginnings, the work of the Congregation spread to all parts of the United States, including the founding of Saint Francis High School in 1955.

Today the Congregation of Holy Cross serves in 15 countries and on five continents. Primarily a missionary congregation of educators, Holy Cross religious and lay ministers also serve in parishes and missions, hospitals and jails, orphanages and shelters, charities and family ministries. They serve in France, the United States, Italy, Poland, Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Haiti, Ghana, Kenya, India, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Most significantly, the Congregation is renowned for the many schools and colleges it has founded around the world. In the United States alone, it administers eight colleges and universities and eighteen secondary schools, including Saint Francis High School. It is all part of Father Moreau’s dream to build an order dedicated to education for all. With his vision of educating the whole person- heart and mind- for service to the world, Blessed Father Moreau might well be considered the patron saint of learning.

As Mr. Chavez and I sat in the Cathedral Sainte Julien in Le Mans waiting in anticipation for the final Mass of Thanksgiving, we felt a part of something truly magnificent. Here we were, among our brothers and sisters of Holy Cross from around the world, celebrating, in many languages, our common father, Blessed Basil Moreau. It was a poignant glimpse of the fruits of Blessed Father Moreau’s vision: an international congregation of educators and ministers united with one mission and one heart.

In his homily, Cardinal McCarrick encouraged us to unite in our shared mission to serve the world through education and apostolic zeal. This is the message that we took home with us. For every member of our Holy Cross family at Saint Francis- students, parents, staff and alumni- the beatification offers us an opportunity to renew our roots in this grand mission and affirm Father Moreau’s role in the past, present and future of Holy Cross.