Family Model & Patrons
Around 1835, Father Basil Moreau, a professor of philosophy and theology, organized a group of “auxiliary priests” who could travel around the diocese of Le Mans, France, educating parishioners.
Soon thereafter, he received control of a group called the Brothers of St. Joseph, and in 1837, he merged these two groups as a community of “Josephite” brothers and “Salvatorist” priests.
He invited a group of laywomen into the community as “Marianite” sisters, pursuing his vision of a unified, education-oriented religious body modeled on the Holy Family. In keeping with this model of unity, he committed a special patron to each of the three component groups—to the priests, the Sacred Heart; to the brothers, St. Joseph; and to the sisters, Our Lady of Sorrows.
Moreau’s vision was to complete and maximize the spiritual vigor of the initial association of men—to give it “one heart, one soul”—by modeling it after the Holy Family and bringing into it a group of laywomen also involved in education and evangelization. To this day, Moreau is honored as founder by the spiritual descendants of these women, who are known in France as Marianites, in Canada as the Sisters of Holy Cross, and in the United States as the Sisters of the Holy Cross, all separately approved by the Vatican.
These groups of sisters had been required to split off from the Congregation of Holy Cross when the Congregation received Vatican approval as an order of brothers and priests in 1857.Today’s various groups continue their devotion to St. Joseph, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and, in a special way that recalls their original roots, to Our Lady of Sorrows.
