Order of the Holy Cross

ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS. - On the origin of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross there is no reliable information; however, it is commonly held that they were founded by Theodore of Celles, around 1210, near Huy in Belgium. The regular life, begun in the church of St. Theobald, was organized in 1248, when the statutes of the Fratres s. Crucis received canonical approval from Card. Pietro Capozzi, deacon of St. George in Velabro, legate of Innocent IV in Belgium. From that time dates the spread of the Order in Belgium, France, Holland, Germany, England.

The religious lived a life of asceticism and contemplation, with particular veneration of the Holy Cross and of the Passion of Christ. Following a marked relaxation of the interior life, in 1410 the master general began an effective reform that brought the Order to great splendor and a wonderful flowering of works.

With the advent of Protestantism in England, under Henry VIII the convents existing there were suppressed: with the French Revolution those of France and Belgium were suppressed, and with Napoleon the flourishing provinces of the Rhineland also disappeared. Only two convents remained standing in Holland, where, however, until 1840, it was forbidden to receive new members.

The energetic government of the master general Henry van den Wijmelenberg, in the last century, led to a very promising rebirth, with a marked orientation toward the active life according to the needs of the times. The Order today has eight houses in Holland, five in Belgium, four in the United States, two in Brazil and two apostolic vicariates in the Belgian Congo and at Bandung in Indonesia.