A Brief History of the Congregation of Holy Cross and the St. Andre Inner Healing Ministry

The Congregation of Holy Cross consists of priests, brothers and sisters and was founded in the mid 1800’s by Fr. Basil Anthony Marie Moreau in San Croix, France. He called them to be educators in the faith and dedicated these three societies to the Holy Family. He wanted the priests of the congregation to serve as auxiliary priests; i.e., clergy who would help parish priests achieve their respective goals by offering retreats and educational programs to the parishioners. The brothers taught school and the sisters taught school and did domestic work. The congregation grew. It founded and developed parishes, universities, colleges, schools, hospitals and missions all over the world including Europe, Asia, North America, and South America and islands. Perhaps the most noted establishments of the congregation are the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, Canada. It also has a shrine dedicated to Blessed Fr. Basil Anthony Moreau at the Church of Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix in Le Mans, France.

The St. André Inner Healing Ministry (STAIHM), which is an offshoot of the congregation’s work, started its work at Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in west Phoenix in 2012. In 2015 it moved its counseling office to Casa Santa Cruz, 7126 N. 7th Avenue in Phoenix, home to the local Holy Cross community since 1971. Most of its inner healing Masses, retreats, and workshops take place at Paul’s Parish on Coal Gables in Phoenix. It sees itself as doing exactly what the original vision of the founder was. It provides programs, as listed below, to help parish priests develop the faith of their respective parishioners.