Special feasts for the Congregation of Holy Cross to be celebrated throughout the 2009-10 academic year

Author: Michael O. Garvey

Holy Cross Feasts

Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, patroness of Holy Cross priests, brothers and sisters, will be celebrated at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday (Sept. 15) in the University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Rev. David Tyson, C.S.C., provincial superior of the Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross, will be the presiding celebrant and homilist for the Mass, at which Holy Cross seminarians will be the altar servers. Sacred music will be provided by the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir.

Four other celebrations of particular significance to the Congregation of Holy Cross will be observed with special Masses during the 2009-10 academic year. Each of the Masses, to which the public is invited, will be celebrated at 5:15 p.m. in the Basilica.

  • Mass for Founder’s Day, or the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, the patron saint of Notre Dame’s founder, Rev. Edward F. Sorin, C.S.C., will be celebrated Oct. 13.
  • Mass for the Feast of Blessed Father Basil Anthony Moreau, C.S.C., the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, will be celebrated Jan. 20. This will be the fourth celebration of Blessed Basil’s feast day since his beatification in 2007.
  • Mass for the Feast of St. Joseph will be celebrated March 19. St. Joseph is the patron saint of the Brothers of Holy Cross.
  • Mass at which two deacons of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Kevin G. Grove, C.S.C., and Gerard J. Olinger Jr., C.S.C., will be ordained to the priesthood, will be celebrated April 10.

The Congregation of Holy Cross was in its infancy in 1842 when Blessed Basil Moreau sent Father Sorin and seven Holy Cross brothers to the Indiana frontier, where they founded the University of Notre Dame. Today, the congregation includes some 2,000 priests, brothers and seminarians working in 15 countries on five continents throughout the world. Throughout its history, members of the congregation have ministered to the University’s students and staff and served prominently in its administration and faculty.