Our History: A Pioneering Spirit
The roots of the Congregation of Holy Cross date back to LeMans, France and the time after the French Revolution. Due to the ongoing persecution of French clergy, Father Jacques Dujarie was secretly ordained to the priesthood in 1795. For several years he exercised his pastoral ministry clandestinely. When the oppression of the Church subsided, he founded the Brothers of St. Joseph, and the Sisters of Providence to help rebuild the devastated educational system of his homeland. In his later years, Father Dujarie sought another zealous priest to guide his fledging band of teaching brothers.

Venerable Father Basil Moreau, C.S.C., who was ordained at the age of 21, took on the task of forming an auxiliary order of priests to preach parish missions throughout the French countryside. This group was combined in 1837 with Father Dujarie’s brothers to form the Congregation of Holy Cross. With a strong commitment to Rome, and a desire to spread the Gospel beyond Europe, he sent religious to Algiers, Bengal, Canada, and what was then the United States frontier.

Father Moreau entrusted Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C. with the responsibility of establishing the Congregation of Holy Cross in the American wilderness. Father Sorin arrived in Indiana with several Holy Cross brothers in 1841. Soon this small group began building the University of Notre Dame.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Holy Cross expanded throughout North America. A humble man, Brother Andre Bessette, C.S.C., of Canada, founded St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. This shrine embodies Brother Andre’s desire for all to come to Christ through the intercession of St. Joseph. Brother Andre was pronounced Blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1982.


The Eastern Province of Priests and Brothers was established in 1948 with Father James Connerton, C.S.C. serving as its first Provincial. Within the boundaries of this province two colleges were established: King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

Among the other ministries of the newly established province were Family Rosary and Family Theatre, founded by Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., the internationally renowned "Rosary Priest" who died in 1992. Father Peyton’s cause for sainthood was recently accepted by the Vatican, which officially declared him a "Servant of God" in 2001. The Eastern Province continues Father Peyton’s groundbreaking work through Holy Cross Family Ministries, with its headquarters in North Easton, Massachusetts, as well as Holy Cross Family Theatre in Hollywood, California.

In response to the call of Pope John XXIII for religious congregations to send missionaries to Latin America, Father George DePrizio, C.S.C., the second provincial of the Eastern Province of Priests and Brothers, sent religious to northern Peru in 1963. The District of Peru, serves the needy in the cities of Lima and Tacna in Southern Peru.