In the Voice of Moreau: The Cross is not front page news or a ticker tape parade, but a slow, dark descent into the unknown. The moment we become special or important in the eyes of the world is precisely the moment that we awaken those power structures in our brains which take us away from the hidden and humble truth of our Lord. How difficult it is to overcome this ego delusion! How those worldly tentacles, as with ancient Israel’s idolatrous history, pull us back into the drama again and again and again. In the #blessed era, well-meaning religious people preach a self-serving, utilitarian, prosperity Cross. Do not be deceived! There is one true Cross and it is marked by a self-effacing way of life where we spend ourselves to become little, unimportant and forgotten. Slowly and systematically, we escape the jungle of ourselves. Learning to tame venomous serpents, put ferocious beasts to sleep and step over sleeping giants, we quietly make our way toward the One whom our heart has loved all along. Why not make this commitment right here and now? Why not consummate our relationship with the Beloved? Why not take the risk of the Cross? Ave Crux Spes Unica.
Holy Cross Educator’s Response: As Catholic, Holy Cross educators we need to work with our students to put a bit and bridal upon our appetitive natures to reign in what William Golding identified as the Beast in his dystopic novel Lord of the Flies. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are.” In order for the prophet Isaiah to proclaim that “[t]he wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them,” our need to gobble up anything that nourishes ME must constantly be regulated toward a dying to self. This transformation happens through a penetrating formation of the heart. Which of us can know the mind of our Creator when we reflect upon the power of the Beast within? The on-going battle with the ferocity of serpents and the raging of giants is the burden each of us bears because of our flawed human nature. Yet once these enemies are identified for what they are, a one way ticket to hell, this avariciousness for ME, ME, ME can be caged, restrained, tamed, but never eliminated. It is a daily, perhaps an hourly, discipline to lean upon the crucified Lord and not upon the burden of ME. We are reminded by Job that “The life of man upon the earth is a warfare” (1:7). Encouragingly, Thomas á Kempis counsels us about our relentless temptations to turn away from God’s commandments: “Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways” (Chapter 13). And Blessed Moreau advises that all of us must heed the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians. “Having therefore such enemies to vanquish, take unto yourself the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand to all things perfect” ( 6:11). Teachers let your students know that you, too, work to clothe yourself with the armor of God while fighting the good fight. Always inform your students with “all [they] need to know” and with the desire to empower that knowledge with integrity to make all things perfect. Focus on the hope of the Cross. Ave Crux Spes Unica!
“On the ninth of July, 1900, the genial old pioneer, Brother Augustus, was suddenly summoned before God to give an account of his talents. He came to Indiana with the second band that crossed the Atlantic to join Father Sorin, and was extremely young when he bade adieu to home and country. Brother Augustus was a tailor and worked at his humble trade for many years previous to his death. There was a charm in his simplicity that won the hearts of his Brothers in religion. He was candid, without guile, without mental reservation, without secret calculation. There was not a fold in his character, not a wrinkle in his childlike dealings with others. The evening of his death he assisted at Benediction, and made some characteristic efforts to join in the singing. During recreation that same evening he appeared more joyful than usual. He went quietly to his bed at the appointed hour, but had sweetly answered his Deo Gratias to an Angel, when the Community Excitator rapped on his door next morning” (Trahey, James J., C.S.C. The Brothers of Holy Cross, 1900). “Professor Stace speaks of the braying bassoon of Brother Augustus who played in the Band with the future Archbishop Reardon, Southern France” (Scholastic, 1888). “The Notre Dame of the time [1845] was a lonely log cabin built by the side of a lake in a large, wild forest. Indians roamed freely about the woods, and used frequently to walk in where the little band of white men were dwelling, and without asking permission, taking whatever they wished. It was primeval America. This was Notre Dame as Brother Augustus found it. He helped replace the log cabin by the little frame building [Old College]” (Scholastic, P. J. Ragan, n. d.). “Brother Augustus died a sudden but not an 
Mother Angela Gillespie, C.S.C. was born Eliza Maria Gillespie near Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on February 21, 1824. In 1853, after years of charitable work and 
He was the inventor of the first synthetic rubber manufactured by Du Pont. At the time of his invention, Nieuwland was a chemistry professor at the University of Notre Dame and a Holy Cross priest. Father Nieuwland was born of Flemish parents and immigrated as a youngster with his family to South Bend, Indiana. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1899, entered Holy Cross and was ordained in 1903. He received his Ph.D. from Catholic University in 1904. For a number of years, he taught his first love, botany, at Notre Dame and collected plants and made drawings of such right up to his death. In 1915, he started a journal dedicated to the botany of the Midwest, The American Naturalist. In 1918 became a professor of organic chemistry. At that time, he was working with acetylene. In the course of this work, he discovered a reaction between acetylene and arsenic trichloride that eventually led to the development of the poison gas lewisite. Nieuwland’s work with acetylene also led him into a collaboration with scientists at Du Pont. Together, they found that upon treating monovinylacetylene with hydrogen chloride to produce chloroprene and polymerizing the result, a very durable synthetic rubber, neoprene, was produced. Du Pont placed this rubber on the market in 1932 under the brand name Duprene. The company offered Fr. Nieuwland $1,000 a year as an honorarium which he declined asking instead for a stipend to be used to buy a supply of books for the chemistry department. Had he left the Congregation because of his discovery, he would have become “wildly” wealthy, yet he had no interest in the money or the fame.
She was born in Nomininque in the Canadian Lauenetians as the oldest of a large family. In 1933 with the sudden death of her mother, she took care of her brothers and sisters. At age 28 she entered the Sister of Holy Cross and for the nest 30 years worked as an educator at Basile Moreau College and CEGEP (General and Vocational College). During these years she earned a doctorate in French literature and was known as a gifted educator. In 1973, she was elected Assistant General of the Sister of Holy Cross and began to make accessible to Holy Cross the writings of the Founder, Blessed Basil Moreau and introduce a renewed reading of Holy Cross sources (from “Tribute to Sister Graziella Lalande, CSC” Micheline Tremblay, CSC, 2018). “She was the premier Moreau scholar in Holy Cross. Distinctive in her scholarship is that she is the first to explore Moreau’s spirituality and teaching through the lens of education. As a professional educator herself, she recognized the significance of what Father Moreau had to say about the type of pedagogy necessary for Holy Cross to have an impact on the complexities of providing a quality education in 19th-century France. She…authored many booklets on various Moreau themes. Her book, Like a Mighty Tree, (1989) is well known…and [p]rior to her death, she published Who Are You, Basile Moreau? expanding and bringing together revised editions of some earlier works” (from YOU MUST TAKE UP THIS WORK: A Meeting with Sister Graziella Lalande, CSC By Brother Joel Giallanza, CSC, 2010).
“One of the original six Brothers who came with Father Sorin. He had for many years been superintendent of farm and general outside financier and business manager for Notre Dame. He had a wide acquaintance and was possessor of a very sociable personality. Many distant friends at funeral” (St. Joseph Valley Resister, April 10, 1873. April 6, 1873). “This excellent and devoted Brother was one of the first band who came to America in 1844. No one in the Community worked harder and more faithfully than himself. Self-sacrificing, ever ready to comply with the wishes of his superior, he recoiled before no hardships. He spent himself for the Community” (Granger’s Memo, 1873). “Brother Lawrence was born in France in the year, 1816; he entered the Congregation in his 24th year, and came with Very Rev. Sorin to this country in 1841” (Scholastic 1873). “From the time of his arrival to the hour of his death he was constant in the fulfillment of his duties. Although more than any other man of my years, I have seen Religious of undoubted fidelity, of great zeal and admirable devotedness, I remember none whom I would place above our dear departed one in these qualities. Bro. Lawrence held almost without interruption for the third part of the century the responsible position of steward or business agent of the Community at Notre Dame, and during that time he had many staunch friends among the farmers of the county and among business and professional men of South Bend and Chicago. Brother Lawrence carries with him the deep and unfeigned sentiments of esteem and respect not only of his entire Community, but also, I believe of all with whom he came into contact, either as a Religious or a business agent of the Institution” Circular Letter Father Sorin).
The legendary “Strongman-Priest,” motivated his lifters with a combination of fear and Teutonic discipline, tempered by love for “his boys.” More than anything he was a hero to those who worked out in his quaint gym behind the Golden Dome. This man, who had a reputation for toughness, was toughest on himself. He was known as one of the strongest men in the world. “Dutch”, as the Prussian-born youth was known, received his degree in 1912 and returned to Notre Dame a year later as a Holy Cross novice. He was ordained in 1917 and earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in biology at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. In 1922, four years after he started weight-training, he was proclaimed the “Fourth Strongest Man in the World.” Diabetes and the deterioration of his eyesight forced him out of the classroom in 1935. He met the situation by honing his talents for sculpture and woodworking and becoming overseer of one of the first and finest collegiate weight-training facilities in the United States. This son of immigrants from Danzig, East Prussia worked as a roughneck in the Pennsylvania oil fields before coming to Notre Dame for prep school. In the east corner of his gym was Lange’s immense workbench, where he turned out plaques and trophies for his boys; built hauling wagons, benches and racks for the gym; and made several busts of his old friend, Knute Rockne. Many of the altars and missal stands in Sacred Heart Church and other campus chapels were crafted here. Toward the end of his life he was blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, but he never complained. Father Lange was at heart a gentle man. During the Great Depression, he gave free swimming lessons to the children of Notre Dane employees. Mindful of his own immigrant background, he befriended the Polish groundskeepers on campus, making them frequent gifts of jackets and money. They were his kind of folks: simple, hardworking, honest. He was known to make small “loans” to them when they were in a bind. Knute Rockne was an enthusiastic supporter of Lange’s concepts, and Ara Parseghian was to give him special recognition for his work with many of his players. Lange had an impact on generations of Notre Dame students. (Gill, Jr., M.D., Paul G. Notre Dame Magazine, Spring 1987)
The fourth of ten children, O’Hara enrolled at the University of Notre Dame in 1908 and in 1910 became a founding officer of Notre Dame Knights of Columbus. After earning a bachelor’s degree and graduating in 1911, he entered the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1912 and made his profession in 1914. After ordination and graduate school, he returned to Notre Dame, where he served as prefect of religion and dean of the College of Commerce. O’Hara greatly fostered the practice of daily reception of Communion still a newly approved practice by the Catholic Church. He was appointed the Vice President of the University of Notre Dame in 1933 and its president in 1934. During his tenure at Notre Dame, he brought numerous refugee intellectuals to campus. He also made doctorates available in philosophy, physics, mathematics and politics. He was a builder: constructing a new laundry, the post office, infirmary, the Rockne Memorial, Cavanaugh, Zahm and Breen-Phillips dormitories. He believed that the Fighting Irish football team could be an effective means to “acquaint the public with the ideals that dominate” Notre Dame. He wrote, “Notre Dame football is a spiritual service because it is played for the honor and glory of God and of his Blessed Mother.” In 1939, O’Hara was appointed by Pope Pius XII as an Auxiliary Bishop of the United States Military Ordinate as well as the Titular Bishop of Milasa. He received his consecration as a bishop on January 15, 1940 from Archbishop Francis Spellman in Sacred Heart Basilica. A devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he selected as his episcopal motto: Following her, you will not go astray. He was named the eighth Bishop of Buffalo in 1945. O’Hara expanded Catholic education in the diocese and eliminated racial segregation in schools and churches. Promoted as the fifth Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1951, he often answered his own doorbell, which he explained by saying, “How else can I meet the poor?” Pope Saint John XXIII created him a cardinal in 1958. He is the only priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross to be raised to the College of Cardinals. John O’Hara died at age 72 and is buried at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Mother Mary of the Seven Dolours, C.S.C. (Leocadie Gascoin, 1818-1900) collaborated with Blessed Basil Moreau in the foundation of the Sisters’ Society. When she was 22, she felt called to a life “given to Charitable works”. On August 4, 1841 Father Moreau himself gave the religious habit to her and to the three companions (Sister Mary of the Holy Cross, Sister Mary of Compassion and Sister Mary of Calvary) who preceded her in the novitiate. It was these four novices who became the first real community of sisters… the community that completed the religious family of Holy Cross. In 1849, she was appointed superior of the mission in Canada. In 1860, she was elected the first provincial and eventually became the superior general. Until her death in 1900, she tirelessly worked to establish and to safeguard her Marianites of Holy Cross. When Blessed Moreau was rejected at the end of his life by his Congregation, it was Mother Mary of the Seven Dolours who remained faithful, “sharing his suffering, defending him, offering the little material offering she could; surrounding him with respect and affection till the moment of his death”. In 1886 she requested that she not be re-elected Superior General—she had performed this service for 26 years. She died in 1900 at 82. (Paraphrased from the paper “Mother Mary of the Seven Dolours as a Person and Collaborator” by Sister Graziella LaLonde, C.S.C., delivered at History Conference, Stonehill College, 1989.)
“Born in Ireland…[Dennis O’Dwyer] came to the United States in 1907 and entered the Juniorate of the Brothers of Holy Cross at Notre Dame. Early recognized for outstanding abilities, for largeness of mind and goodness of heart, having served successfully as the Principal of three high schools, in 1931 Brother Ephrem was appointed treasurer of the University of Notre Dame, and thereafter a member of the Provincial Council. At the General Chapter of 1945 he was selected to be the first Provincial Superior of the Brothers of Holy Cross in the United States. Under his direction, the Brothers and their schools flourished with such phenomenal success that in 1956, the Congregation instituted the Eastern Vice-Province, and appointed Brother Ephrem to be Vice Provincial to the Brothers of the new Vice-Province. In 1953, in recognition of its growth in numbers and good works, the eastern area was raised to the status of Province, and Brother Ephrem became Provincial of the Eastern Province of the Brothers of Holy Cross. A great servant of God, a great leader of men, through the vision and labors of Brother Ephrem, God has blest American education and us all” (Father Richard Sullivan, C.S.C, President of Stonehill College, 1960). In 1976, the University of Notre Dame conferred upon him a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. “Because he is a man of vision, as well as of Irish wit, he has acted with clarity, undaunted courage, and strength of purpose throughout his religious life. Despite the fact that he shouldered responsibility for many of his active years, and because of his deep trust and belief in God, he always remained profoundly human, and his solicitude for others never wavered in his sixty-seven years of religious profession.”
“In the death (Feb. 26, 1920) of Brother Paul the Hermit (John W. McIntyre), at St. Joseph’s hospital, last Thursday afternoon, the Congregation of Holy Cross lost one of its most zealous members. For many years past — since 1906 — the deceased was an assistant Superior General of the Community. He was born [in] Superior, Wisconsin, [in] 1858 and at the age of 17 entered St. Joseph’s Novitiate at Notre Dame. For the 18 years subsequent to his profession he served most ably as secretary of the University and thereafter in order as assistant Master of Novices, promoter at the House of Studies, Watertown, Wisconsin, as business manager of the Ave Maria and for the last two years as superintendent of construction and accommodation work at Notre Dame. His work in all these offices was marked by fidelity, zeal, and efficiency. Despite the handicap of ill health during many years, he labored untiringly in the service of religion and education and was often able to attend to his strenuous duties only by the wonderful strength of will for which he was so remarkable. An ideal religious with many great gifts of mind and heart, Brother Paul fulfilled his vocation in a manner worthy of the highest admiration. That he may receive quickly the rich reward for which he lived so consistently is the heartfelt prayer of everyone who knew him. A solemn Mass was celebrated in Sacred Heart Church by the President of the University, Rev. John Cavanaugh, C.S.C.” (from a letter to Father Edward Sorin 1891).
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Voice of Moreau 