The Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Holy Cross (CSC) is located on the grounds of Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana. The Sisters of the Holy Cross are one of three Catholic congregations of religious sisters which trace their origins to the foundation of the Congregation of Holy Cross by the Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau, CSC, at Le Mans, France in 1837. The other two congregations of religious women in the tradition of the Holy Cross Family are the Marianites of Holy Cross (New Orleans, Louisiana) and the Sisters of Holy Cross (Montreal, Canada).
They are distinct from the Sisters of the Holy Cross Menzingen, a teaching congregation founded separately in Switzerland in 1844.
In 1837, Father Moreau, established the Congregation of Holy Cross. The congregation took its name from the neighborhood of Sainte Croix in Le Mans, where the 12th-century church, Notre Dame du Sainte Croix, was to become the mother church of the new foundation. In 1841 Fr. Moreau founding a society of sisters within the Congregation.
For a history of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, see the Sisters of the Holy Cross History.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross are represented in the following countries (with their year of first arrival in parentheses):
United States (1843)
Bengal, India (now Bangladesh) (1889)
Brazil (1947)
Uganda (1967)
Peru (1982)
Ghana (1983)
Mexico 1987)
1844: Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana
1868: Academy of the Holy Cross, Kensington, Maryland
1875-1969: College of Saint Mary-of-the-Wasatch, Salt Lake City, Utah
1935-1973: Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross, Washington, D.C.
1947: Colégio Santa Maria (São Paulo), São Paulo, Brazil
1950: Holy Cross Girls' High School (Dhaka), Dhaka, Bangladesh
1950: Holy Cross College (Dhaka), Dhaka, Bangladesh
1952-1972: Cardinal Cushing College, Brookline, Massachusetts
1841 Congregation founded by Rev. Basil Anthony Moreau, CSC.
1843 Four sisters arrive in Indiana
1861 Sisters are operating schools and orphanages throughout the eastern half of the United States
1862 Sister nurses board the Union Navy hospital ship Red Rover, becoming the forerunners of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps.
1927 Sisters return to Bangladesh (after previous ministries in 1853-1876 and 1889-1896)
1947 Sisters begin ministry in Brazil
1967 Sisters begin ministry in Uganda
1974-97 Sisters minister in Tiberias, Israel
1982 Sisters begin ministry in Peru
1983 Sisters begin ministry in Ghana
1987 Sisters begin ministry in Mexico
1993 Sisters open a house of spiritual study for Holy Cross sisters in India
