In honor of the founder of the Congregations of Holy Cross, Saint Mary’s College and the Sisters of the Holy Cross celebrated Blessed Basil Moreau and his legacy with the recently-established Holy Cross Heritage Month.
Kicking off the series with a Mass and French-themed social on Jan. 18, students, faculty and sisters alike participated in a variety of activities and events over the last two weeks.
“I love Holy Cross Heritage Month because it gives us at Saint Mary’s these special opportunities to pause and learn about, remember, express and act on our relationship to the Sisters and it helps us to feel connected in a really special way to all of the Holy Cross family,” vice president for mission Molly Gower said.
Moreau established the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1837 with the merging of the Brothers of St. Joseph and a group of “auxiliary priests” whose mission was to assist in educational and spiritual programs in their diocese, according to the Congregation’s website. In 1841, Moreau established a group of women religious, which branched into three distinct congregations, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who later founded Saint Mary’s in 1844, the Marianites of Holy Cross and the Sisters of Holy Cross. Moreau’s congregation of priests and brothers, led by Rev. Edward Sorin, also founded Notre Dame in 1842.
The celebration of Holy Cross Heritage Month, a relatively new observance launched by the Congregation of Holy Cross, happens to coincide with Saint Mary’s Heritage Week, which traditionally falls under student government to oversee. According to Nicole Labadie, the director of the Center for Faith, Action and Ministry, this is the first year that multiple departments within Saint Mary’s such as CFAM, the Mission Council and the Sisters of the Holy Cross have collaborated for the College’s remembrance of heritage.
“Basil Moreau’s vision for education, which is carried on by the Sisters, is one of educating both hearts and minds and shaping students to be family to one another,” Labadie said. “That’s something I really love about the Congregation of Holy Cross and the Sisters of the Holy Cross in particular, that our motto is ‘hail the cross, our only hope,’ and that there is always hope to be found.”
Many of the events and activities for Holy Cross Heritage month centered on the history and faith of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the spirit of highlighting Moreau’s values in furthering education, missionary work and the Holy Cross motto. Just a few of these events included Moreau’s feast day Mass, a French-themed cuisine lunch in the Noble Family Dining Hall, a lecture given by Sisters Verónica Fajardo and 1967 Saint Mary’s graduate Mary Margaret Weber, a trivia night and a contemplative art retreat.
“A lot of Saint Mary's students don’t know what the Saint Mary’s mission statement is; who the Sisters of the Holy Cross are … It is so beautiful to learn about how such special people are impacting the world around them. It’s something that every Saint Mary’s student should know,” senior Sheccid Gutierrez, mission co-chair for student government association, said.
On Wednesday, Gutierrez and her co-chair senior Ashley Sims hosted a Holy Cross Passport event to celebrate all of the corners of the world where the sisters work. In addition to a dirty soda bar, an Insomnia Cookies table and journal-decorating stations, students were encouraged to visit a series of tables in Stapleton Lounge with information about the missionary work the Sisters have and continue to undertake on five separate continents.
“It’s so important to know where you come from. And since Saint Mary’s was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross … it is very important to know where the sisters have been, the different ways they’re impacting different cultural communities, different countries, different people, to then be able to reflect on, ‘How can I be actively living out the Saint Mary’s mission statement in my life and help others?’” Gutierrez said when asked the importance of pushing education about the Sisters. “It doesn’t mean you have to go to five different continents, a million different countries, but what can you do where you’re at? What kind of impact [can you make]; what sort of community service can you do?”
Last Friday, Gutierrez, CFAM and the Sisters co-sponsored an afternoon prayer service titled, “Prayer for Hope” in the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. The event also coincides with the dedicated Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is celebrated by many different Christian denominations around the world. The service included two hymns, a reading spoken in Spanish by junior Kimberly Ortiz-Morales, a psalm sung by junior Izzy Bergeron, a poem made by Sister Madeleva Wolff and a reflection offered by Sister Maryanne O’Neill.
“As we end the jubilee year, we are reminded that we are called to be pilgrims of hope. How fortuitous it is for us to continue that theme of hope in looking at and praying over Holy Cross’s paragon of hope, especially under God’s own word and with those who follow him,” O’Neill said in her reflection. “Looking back at my own congregation’s beginnings, I have hope for today and I believe I won’t be disappointed in that hope.”
Coinciding with Holy Cross Heritage Month, the Sisters also unveiled the Moreau Room, a small reflection space open to all parishioners dedicated to Moreau and the history of the Sisters of the Holy Cross located within the narthex of the Church of Our Lady of Loretto.
After the Sisters sold Bertrand Hall to Saint Mary’s in 2021, a committee was formed to decide how to store and display many of the artifacts and archival history of the Sisters originally held in that building. O’Neill, who was chair of the committee, believed the room would offer such a space.
“When people come to this church, it's wonderful to be able to say now, ‘our founder is very dear to us, so we have this room set aside with a little bit of his history, portraits of him, [and] a bust,’” O’Neill said.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross announced the opening of the Moreau Room during their weekly Mass Jan. 18 to be used as a place of reflection and learning about the history of Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C.
As the end of Holy Cross Heritage Month comes to a close with the screening of the 2018 film “Quiet Heroes” on Wednesday, Gower believes it’s just as important to continue remembering the vision of the Congregation of Holy Cross in our lives as it is to celebrate them and their history one month out of the year.
“Basil Moreau had this vision of Holy Cross as a family and I feel like the more we understand that, and understand that we’re connected and support each other, the more fully we’re living his vision,” Gower said.
