March 12, 2026 // Diocese

St. Joseph Parish Honors Holy Men of Holy Cross

Lisa Kochanowski

Freelance writer

Relics are pieces of the past that inspire the future. They are the bodies of saints, objects they used during their lifetime or have been touched to their bodies after their death. In the Catholic Church, relics of saints are used in altars, reliquaries for public veneration, and shrines. Recently, St. Joseph Catholic Church in South Bend celebrated the installation of relics of two members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Blessed Basil Moreau and St. André Bessette.

“Relics help remind us that the saints are real people. But they’re not just ordinary people, they’re in heaven. The saints are the friends of God who are also our friends,” said Theresa Rice, a University of Notre Dame Ph.D. candidate who hosted talks to the school and parish about the relics before their arrival. “Relics are really tangible. We can see them. They help us think about all of these men and women who we can’t see anymore but who are still here with us and interceding for us, praying at Mass with us, joining us, and hoping that we join them, too.”

St. Joseph Parish has been led by the religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross since the founding of the parish by Father Edward Sorin in 1853. The church has a great devotion to Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and St. André Bessette, the first saint of the congregation.

“Our parish has a great devotion to our Holy Cross identity, especially in devotion to Moreau and André,” Holy Cross Father Peter Puleo, associate pastor of St. Joseph, told Today’s Catholic. “Whether through the school, where our teachers are formed in Moreau’s model of education and the students learn the ‘DOOR’ virtues of St. André [DOOR stands for “Devotion to St. Joseph, Openness to God’s will/serving others, Obedience, and Reliance on prayer”] or in our parish groups like the André ministry for the sick and homebound, these two holy men form our identity and inspire us to live the Christian life.”

“We have had statues of Moreau and André in our church for years, and yet we noticed that we did not have any relics of the two men,” Father Puleo said. “Therefore, we sought to acquire relics from the Holy Cross Generalate in Rome to further foster our parish’s devotion to them and the way of life they teach.”

The relics are permanent additions to the parish that are displayed in reliquaries crafted by parishioner Andy Czarnecki near the statues of Blessed Basil Moreau and St. André Bessette. They are available for viewing and veneration at any time.

“Devotion to the saints is important for any Catholic, and relics uniquely foster that devotion,” shared Father Puleo. “Relics are a tangible, sacramental connection to our history, presenting for our veneration the body of our ancestors in the faith, who are the ones who have handed on our faith to us. Relics also connect us with other Christians across the world who venerate the same relics; the same body venerated here is honored in Montreal and LeMans, and in Holy Cross apostolates throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.”

“The relics also point us forward to hope in the Resurrection, for it is the very body of the relic, and our body, that is incorporated into the Body of Christ and which He will raise on the Last Day,” Father Puleo continued. “Relics are thus inherently Eucharistic, remembering the past, connecting us across the present, and pointing us toward the future, but colored by a specific saint’s life and memory. Therefore, this moment is important to our community because it will allow us to rejoice, remember, and live our Christian faith ever more fully through our devotion to Moreau and André.”

At the formal installation in January, hundreds gathered to celebrate the special addition to the church and community. The relics were blessed by Holy Cross Father Matthew Fase, the parish’s pastor, and Father Puleo, followed by a procession through the church to the reliquaries.

“I hope that visitors to our parish will be drawn into the veneration of the relics, to express their own devotion to Moreau and André, or to learn more about them if they have not encountered them before,” Father Puleo said. “The visual nature of relics presents an invitation to see and experience the faith in a more tangible way, and I hope through these relics that visitors will be able to share our devotion and know the same joy and faith that we do through these men.”

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ABOUT THE SAINTS

St. André Bessette

Born in Canada, André worked for three years in the United States as a weaver and manual laborer. After returning to Canada in 1870, he joined the Congregation of Holy Cross and took final vows in 1874. For decades, Brother André humbly served his community near Montreal as doorman, janitor, barber, gardener, and infirmarian. With St. Joseph as his model and intercessor, he developed a healing ministry and huge following. In 1904, he moved into Montreal to help build the Oratory of the Holy Cross, where he remained for the rest of his life. When this “Miracle Man of Montreal” was canonized in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said he “lived the beatitude of the pure of heart.”

Blessed Basil Moreau

Born in France in 1799, Basil was ordained a priest for the diocese of LeMans in 1821. He organized a group of priests who were known as “auxiliary priests” whose mission was to travel around and assist throughout the diocese. In 1835, the bishop asked him to oversee the Brothers of St. Joseph, a group of teaching brothers. In 1837, Blessed Moreau merged the auxiliary priests and the brothers into a new association. The group took its name from the town where Moreau based them, Sainte Croix, or Holy Cross. The Holy See recognized the priests and brothers as a religious congregation, the Congregation of Holy Cross, in 1857.  From very early on in the life of the community, Moreau sent out religious to assist in various areas, including Algeria, the United States, Canada, Rome, and East Bengal. Following a number of struggles and crises within the community, Moreau resigned as superior general in 1866. Blessed Moreau died on January 20, 1873. He was beatified in LeMans, France, on September 15, 2007.