PRESS
RELEASE ABOUT BEATIFICATION
The Venerable Basile-Antoine
Marie Moreau, C.S.C., (1799-1873), founder of the Priests, Brothers and Sisters
of Holy Cross will be beatified in Le Mans, France, in 2007.
On April 28, 2006, His
Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI approved the promulgation of the miracle attributed
to the intercession of the Venerable Basile-Antoine Marie Moreau (1799-1873),
founder of the men and women’s congregations of Holy Cross. This promulgation prepares the way for the
eventual beatification of the venerable founder of the Holy Cross Family that
will take place in the diocese of Le
Mans, France
during the year 2007. The date of the beatification, has yet to be confirmed by the Vatican authorities.
Father Moreau’s cause for
beatification was first introduced on the diocesan level in Le Mans, France
in 1946. However, it was not until
1955, that the cause was presented for consideration by the Congregation for
the Causes of Saints in Rome. This congregation studied the life, the
writings and the spirituality of Basile Moreau and after a definitive
presentation of the study on the founder’s virtues in 1994, the congregation
recommended to the late Holy Father, John Paul II on January 11, 2003, that he
declare Basile Moreau’s practice of the theological and cardinal virtues to be heroic in nature. Pope John Paul II issued the declaration and
bestowed on the founder of Holy Cross the title Venerable on April 12, 2003.
After further study and the unanimous acceptance of a miraculous cure
attributed to Venerable Basile Moreau’s intercession, the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints recommended to His Holiness Benedict XVI on November 8, 2005 that Basile Moreau be declared Blessed.
Basile
Moreau was born in Laigné-en-Belin, a town in the diocese of Le Mans, France
on February 11, 1799. He died in Le Mans on January 20,
1873. As a priest of the diocese of Le
Mans and seminary professor, he established the Association of Holy Cross consisting
of two societies, one of men (brothers and priests) and the other of women, both
having as principal ministries the education of youth and evangelization. The congregation of priests and brothers of
Holy Cross received definitive approbation by the Holy See in 1857. The Marianites of Holy Cross were approved
ten years later in 1867. In 1869
the Marianites of Holy Cross in Indiana
received their autonomy and became the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy
Cross; in 1883 the Marianites in Canada became the branch known as
the Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Cross (Soeurs de Sainte-Croix). Since their inception, the four congregations
making up the Holy Cross Family have grown and spread throughout the world. The
men and women of Holy Cross have begun and still maintain educational institutions
as well as important social and pastoral ministries in North and South America,
Africa and Asia. It is through their commitment to the vowed
life, their zeal for the mission and the diversity of ministry that the
priests, sisters and brothers of Holy Cross continue to live out the vision of Venerable
Basile Moreau, who saw his religious family as a “a mighty tree that constantly
shoots forth new limbs and branches and is nourished by the same life-giving
sap” (Moreau, 1854) and as visible manifestation of the union and
interdependence of both the Holy Trinity and the Holy Family. It is for this
reason that he dedicated the priests to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the sisters
to the heart of Mary and the brothers to St.
Joseph and the entire congregation to Mary under the
title of Our Lady of Sorrows.
It should be noted also that Pope John Paul II beatified
two Canadian members of the Holy Cross family:
Blessed Brother André Bessette, founder of Saint Joseph Oratory in
Montréal, and Blessed Mother Marie Léonie Paradis, foundress of the Little
Sisters of the Holy Family.
For further information on Basile
Moreau and the Congregations of Holy Cross, please contact:
www.holycrosscongregation.org;
www.marianites.org;
www.cscsisters.org;
www.sistersofholycross.org.
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