 | |
| Abbreviation | MSC |
|---|---|
| Formation | c. AD 1841 |
| Founder | Blessed Father Basil Anthony-Marie Moreau, CSC |
| Type | Catholic religious order |
| Headquarters | United States of America |
Main organ | Congregation of Holy Cross |
| Website | marianites |
The Marianites of Holy Cross (MSC) is a Catholic congregation of nuns, founded in Le Mans, France, in 1841, by Fr Basil Moreau. It was founded as a third distinct society within the Congregation of Holy Cross. The Marianites of Holy Cross is now an independent congregation.
In 1835 Father Basil Anthony Moreau, then assistant superior of the seminary at Le Mans, founded a group of priests to assist him in his endeavors to re-invigorate the Church throughout the diocese. He called them the Society of Auxiliary Priests. He also assumed supervision of the Brothers of St. Joseph when their founder Father Jacques Dujarié became too ill to continue their direction. In 1837 the two organizations were combined to form the Association of the Holy Cross. [1]
The following year he gave a rule of life to a group of devout laywomen who assisted the priests and brothers, first by doing domestic work, then in teaching and nursing. These women became the Marianites of Holy Cross. In 1841 the first Marianites received the religious habit. The Marianites were dedicated to Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Seven Dolors. The women of Holy Cross came to form three distinct congregations: Marianites of Holy Cross, Sisters of the Holy Cross, and Sisters of Holy Cross. [1]
Léocadie Romaine Gascoin was born 1818 in Montenay, the 4th of 6 children. Her parents were middle-class farmers. Her mother died in 1822. Léocadie spent most of her early life at home taking care of her family. 1841 she became one of the first Marianites, entered the novitiate in Le Mans. She received her religious formation with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd at their monastery in Le Mans. Gascoin pronounced first vows in 1844 and the following year she was named the first Superior General of the Marianites, taking the name Mother Mary of Seven Dolors (Mère Marie des Sept Douleurs). She died in 1900 in Le Mans. [2]
As the congregation grew throughout the 1840s and early 1850s in the United States and Canada, Fr. Moreau sent groups of priests, brothers and sisters to work together and support each other's mission within the Family of Holy Cross. The sisters initially supported the priests and brothers by providing domestic services.
At the request of Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, Bishop of Vincennes, Moreau sent some sisters who established in 1844, in Bertrand, Michigan, a school for girls. By 1855, this school moved the 6 miles to Notre Dame, Indiana to become Saint Mary's College, still one of the leading Catholic women's liberal arts colleges.
In 1846 Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal asked Moreau, whom he had visited at Holy Cross, to send him sisters whom he might establish in his diocese. Four religious were sent in 1847 and founded their first house in the village of St. Lawrence, near Montreal. [2]
In 1856, Rome approved the constitutions of Holy Cross for the men. Doubting the propriety of a mixed congregation of men and women, Rome separated the women into an independent community at that time. Fr. Moreau, in his role as their founder, continued to work for Rome's approval of the sisters' constitution. In 1885, Rome approved the constitutions of the Marianites of Holy Cross, granting them the status of "congregation" within the Church. [2]
Meanwhile, the sisters set up schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, Le Mans, France and Quebec, Canada. The unity of the Marianites of Holy Cross would not last long: competing authorities at Notre Dame and Le Mans, complicated by slow communications over large distances, led to the withdrawal of the sisters at Indiana in 1867 and Quebec in 1883. They formed two new, independent congregations: the Sisters of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame, Indiana, and the Sisters of Holy Cross at Montreal, Quebec.
In 1849 three Marianite sisters traveled from France to New Orleans and opened an orphanage for boys. In 1866 they set up Holy Angels Academy, a high school for girls in the Bywater historic district. With the opening of the Archdiocesan Archbishop Hannan High School in Meraux, enrollment was reduced and Holy Angels closed in 1992. [3]
In 1965 the Marianites of Holy Cross founded Our Lady of Prompt Succor Nursing Home to provide long-term health care and short term rehabilitation services to the surrounding communities. C'est la Vie Independent Living Center for seniors was added in March 1986. [4]
The Marianites of Holy Cross continue to work in their traditional geographical areas of Le Mans, France and New Orleans, Louisiana. They continue to operate several significant institutions including: Our Lady of Holy Cross College, founded in New Orleans in 1916 and Holy Family School, in Port Allen, Louisiana, founded in 1949. As of 2016 there were 140 sisters worldwide. [5]
Sister Suellen Tennyson, age 83, who was at one time head of the congregation was kidnapped on the night of 4–5 April 2022 while working in Burkina Faso. She was released on 29 August through the efforts of the U.S. government, which thanked the government of Niger for its assistance in obtaining her release. [6] [7]
Holy Cross or Saint Cross may refer to:
The Congregation of Holy Cross is a Catholic religious congregation of missionary priests and brothers founded in 1837 by Basil Moreau, in Le Mans, France.
Canoness is a member of a religious community of women living a simple life. Many communities observe the monastic Rule of St. Augustine. The name corresponds to the male equivalent, a canon. The origin and Rule are common to both. As with the canons, there are two types: canonesses regular, who follow the Augustinian Rule, and secular canonesses, who follow no monastic Rule of Life.
University of Holy Cross (UHC) is a private Catholic liberal arts college in New Orleans, Louisiana founded by the Marianites of Holy Cross.
Basil Moreau, C.S.C. was the French priest who founded the Congregation of Holy Cross from which three additional congregations were founded, namely the Marianites of Holy Cross, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, and the Sisters of Holy Cross. Father Moreau was beatified on September 15, 2007 in Le Mans, France.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross (CSC) 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 and the Sisters of Holy Cross. Their motherhouse is located in Notre Dame, Indiana.
The Sisters of Holy Cross, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is an international Catholic congregation of religious sisters which traces its origins to the foundation of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1837 in Le Mans, France by the Blessed Father Basil Anthony-Marie Moreau, CSC. Two other congregations of sisters also have the same origins: the Marianites of Holy Cross and the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
Jacques-François Dujarié (1767-1838) was a French Catholic priest who served the people of France at the start of the 19th century. To this end, he founded a congregation of Religious Sisters and another one of Brothers.
A teaching order is a Catholic religious institute whose particular charism is education. Many orders and societies sponsor educational programs and institutions, and teaching orders participate in other charitable and spiritual activities; a teaching order is distinguished in that education is a primary mission.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a wooden devotional image of the Madonna and Child enshrined in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America. The image is closely associated with Mother Saint Michel, the Superior of the New Orleans Ursulines.
The Congregation of Our Lady of Sion is composed of two Roman Catholic religious congregations founded in Paris, France. One is composed of Catholic priests and Religious Brothers, founded in 1852, and the other is composed of Religious Sisters, founded in 1843, both by Marie Theodor Ratisbonne, along with his brother Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, "to witness in the Church and in the world that God continues to be faithful in his love for the Jewish people and to hasten the fulfillment of the promises concerning the Jews and the Gentiles.".
Henriette Díaz DeLille was a Louisiana Creole of Color and Catholic nun from New Orleans. Her father was a white man from France, her mother was a "quadroon", and her grandfather came from Spain. She founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1836 and served as their first Mother Superior. The sisters are the second-oldest surviving congregation of African-American nuns.
The Sisters of the Holy Family are a Catholic religious order of African-American nuns based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were founded in 1837 as the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Henriette DeLille, adopting the current name in 1842. They were the second Black religious order in the United States, after Mother Mary Lange's Oblate Sisters of Providence.
The Order of Our Lady of Charity is a Roman Catholic monastic order, founded in 1641 by John Eudes, at Caen, France, and known for profitably overseeing the slavery-like conditions in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland for which Ireland has apologized to the victims.
Julie (Julienne) Bertrand was the first Canadian superior general of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Seven Dolours.
Léocadie Gascoin was the co-founder and superior of the Sisters Marianites of Holy Cross. Her name in the congregation was Marie des Sept-Douleurs.
Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States have played a major role in American religion, education, nursing and social work since the early 19th century. In Catholic Europe, convents were heavily endowed over the centuries, and were sponsored by the aristocracy. Religious orders were founded by entrepreneurial women who saw a need and an opportunity, and were staffed by devout women from poor families. The number of Catholic nuns grew exponentially from about 900 in the year 1840, to a maximum of nearly 200,000 in 1965, falling to 56,000 in 2010. According to an article posted on CatholicPhilly.com, the website of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October 2018, National Religious Retirement Office statistics showed that number as 47,160 in 2016, adding that “about 77 percent of women religious are older than 70.” In March 2022, the NRRO was reporting statistics from 2018, citing the number of professed sisters as 45,100. The network of Catholic institutions provided high status lifetime careers as nuns in parochial schools, hospitals, and orphanages. They were part of an international Catholic network, with considerable movement back and forth from Britain, France, Germany and Canada.
Mother Mary Elizabeth Williams, F.H.M. was an American Black Catholic nun who founded the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary in 1916.
Notre Dame de Sainte Croix is a Catholic church located in the city of Le Mans, France. The church gives its name to the neighborhood itself. It was the first site of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
