Moreau's Faith & Vision
A Quick Biography of Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C.
- Born in Laigné-en-Belin, in the diocese of Le Mans, France, on Feb. 11, 1799.
- In 1821, he was ordained a priest for the diocese of LeMans, and he later became a seminary professor teaching philosophy and theology while enthusiastically continuing pastoral duties.
- By 1835, he had organized a group of young and energetic priests, known as “auxiliary priests,” whose mission was to travel around the diocese assisting in educational and spiritual growth programs at parishes.
- In 1835, his bishop asked him also to oversee the Brothers of St Joseph, a recently founded group of educators. He merged the priests and the brothers by 1837. This association took its name from the town where it was based, Sainte-Croix, or Holy Cross.
- Moreau’s vision was to complete and maximize the spiritual vigor of this association—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. This latter group established Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind.
- Calling on the spiritual aid of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Moreau gave to each of the three groups a patron: he consecrated the priests to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; he consecrated the brothers to the pure heart of St. Joseph; and he consecrated the sisters to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He also established Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows, as special patroness for all of Holy Cross, whose members in their several congregations continue to cherish these devotions.
- Reflecting his foundation’s zeal to make God known, loved, and served, Moreau soon started sending members to other countries, including Algeria, the United States, Canada, and Bangladesh. He sent seven young men—six brothers and Father Edward Sorin—to the United States, where they founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842.
- The Holy See officially declared Moreau’s group to be a religious congregation—the Congregation of Holy Cross—in 1857. It was required that the sisters break off from this congregation of priests and brothers, and the sisters were later approved as separate congregations, as noted above.
- Later, amid crises and controversies in the Congregation, including problems over which Moreau and Sorin disagreed, Moreau resigned as superior general. He lived his last days estranged from his community. Moreau was succeeded by Bishop Dufal of Bengal, who resigned after a brief term. Father Sorin became the third man elected to succeed Moreau as superior general.
- Moreau died in Le Mans on Jan. 20, 1873.
(Portions cited from Basil Moreau, Founder of Holy Cross, by Gary MacEoin.)
Quotes from Blessed Basil:
“We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven.” — Circular Letter 36
“Our rules certainly ensure the necessary training for the mind, but their first and foremost concern is with the formation of the heart through the development of those religious dispositions which alone can make a good person and a Christian.” — Circular Letter 79
“Education is the art of helping young people to completeness; for the Christian, this means education is helping a young person to be more like Christ, the model of all Christians.” — Christian Pedagogy
