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History & Mission


Mission

Groundbreaking of Holy Cross College.The Holy Cross College mission is to educate and form global citizens with the competence to see and the courage to act.

Holy Cross is a Catholic college that advances the apostolic mission of the Holy Cross Brothers. Our practical, experiential, liberal arts curriculum applies timeless truths to contemporary life and leads people to wholeness in the image of Christ.

History

Brother John Driscoll, C.S.C., served as president and dean for the first two decades of the college’s history from 1966 until 1987. After two interim presidents, Brother Richard Gilman, C.S.C., presided over the next two decades of growth and change from 1992 until 2010. Under Brother Richard, Holy Cross evolved from a two-year community college into a residential four-year liberal arts college. Today the college is led by Marco J. Clark, Ed.D.

In 1993, the College reached worldwide fame in the movie Rudy, the story of a young man who attends Holy Cross College and, through diligence and hard work, overcomes great odds to achieve his dream of attending the University of Notre Dame and playing football for the Fighting Irish. In those days, Holy Cross was a two-year junior college with a reputation for transforming good students into excellent students capable of admission to the nation’s finest universities.

Today, Holy Cross’s reputation for producing excellent students is even stronger as a destination school in its own right. Students from 50 states and 30 foreign countries have earned their four-year BA degrees from Holy Cross College.

Holy Cross Brothers

Holy Cross Brothers fulfill the mission to be “educators in the faith” to men and women everywhere—especially the poor, afflicted, and oppressed—as teachers, administrators, social workers, and parish ministers, often in collaboration with the Holy Cross Priests and Sisters.

Sisters of the Holy Cross

Holy Cross Sisters are a Roman Catholic congregation of women, part of the international Holy Cross family of Sisters, Brothers, and Priests. Sisters of the Holy Cross live out Jesus’ gospel and mission by ministering in many different ways to people around the world. Addressing unmet needs in a variety of cultures and settings, they minister across eight countries on four continents in:

  • Large hospitals and small outreach clinics
  • Elementary and secondary schools and universities
  • Churches and parishes
  • The streets of the inner city
  • Rural areas

Holy Cross Fathers

With nearly 2,000 priests, brothers, sisters, and seminarians in universities, colleges, high schools, foreign missions, parishes, social justice ministries, and other apostolic works on five continents, Holy Cross is growing in the 21st century as Educators in the Faith. The community’s seal is the cross and anchors with the motto, Spes Unica: The Cross, Our Only Hope. Its initials (C.S.C.) are Latin for Congregatio a Sancta Cruce.

Find out more about the Holy Cross Congregation.