MOREAU, BASILE-ANTOINE. - Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross and of the sisters of the same title, b. at Laigné-en-Belin (Mayenne) on 11 Feb. 1798, d. at Le Mans (Sarthe) on 20 Jan. 1873.
A priest in 1821 and subsequently professor and director of the two seminaries, minor and major, of his diocese, in 1834 he created the Institute of Auxiliary Priests, with the aim of helping parish priests through parish retreats, preaching, missions, etc.; urged by the bishop of Le Mans, in the same year he took charge of the reorganization of the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Joseph, founded in 1820 by Canon G. F. Dujarié, and ended by merging the two groups into a single Congregation (11 March 1837), which took the name of Holy Cross, and received the decree of praise on 18 June 1855 and the approval of its Constitutions by the Holy See on 13 May 1857. M. saw his work prosper greatly, especially in France and in America; it devoted itself with zeal to education, to preaching, particularly in rural localities and in foreign missions, to the parish ministry, to the good press and to the direction of homes for the care of delinquent or abandoned boys. To M. is also due the foundation, in 1841, of a parallel women's institute, the Sisters of Holy Cross, with the aim of devoting themselves above all to the education of young women.
Besides the circular letters addressed to his religious (2 vols., Montreal 1941) he wrote Meditations for religious and laypeople (ibid. 1932) and several pedagogical works of high value. He was indeed, along with Lacordaire, Montalembert and Dupan-
Baker, who published The holy practices of a divine lover, or the Saintly Idor's Devotions (Paris 1567); in 1658 there followed The spiritual exercises of the most vertuous and religious dame G. M. (edited by F. G., Paris). Edited anew by Fr. Henry Collins (Devotions of dame G. M., 1873), by Lane Fox (1908) and by Weld Blundell (1910).
Bibliography2 works
Enrico Rope loup, one of the most effective and constant pioneers in the struggle for freedom of teaching, succeeding in opening at Le Mans a college in full operation even before the law on freedom of teaching was passed. From Pius IX he received the title of "Apostolic Missionary." The cause of beatification has been begun.