Our Story

Becoming Holy Cross

Nearly 500 years after Saint Ignatius formed the Jesuits and the Society of Jesus, Holy Cross uses Ignatian Jesuit ideals as the foundation for its teachings: to care for the whole person and leave the fragile planet in a better place than we found it. 

From the beginning of his tenure as the second bishop of Boston, Benedict Joseph Fenwick S.J., wanted to establish a Catholic college within his New England diocese. He recognized a need to educate Catholics, who in great numbers, were fleeing religious persecution and famine, and seeking economic opportunity.

Other sites had been considered, but in Worcester, in 1836, Rev. James Fitton began an academy for boys on land that the Nipmuc tribe and other Indigenous people called home for centuries. The academy prospered but Father Fitton’s pastoral responsibilities in Worcester, Rhode Island, and Connecticut left him neither time nor energy to manage a boarding school. He left the property and buildings to Bishop Fenwick for his college.

Fenwick named the College in honor of the cathedral church in Boston, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The cornerstone was put in place on June 21, 1843. About four months later, on Nov. 2, the first classes were held with six students aged 9 to 19.

Confronting Our Past

Like dozens of other schools that were established in the early 19th century, Holy Cross received financial support from the profits generated by slavery. It received an undetermined amount from Georgetown University, which sold 272 enslaved individuals to help expand Jesuit education in the United States. 

Holy Cross continues to research its beginnings as an institution and how it profited out the American slave trade. Holy Cross’ first valedictorian, James Healy, was born an enslaved individual under Georgia law. His father at 32, an Irish immigrant, purchased his mother, Mary Eliza, an enslaved woman, when she was 16.

James, who became the second Bishop of Portland, Maine, had four brothers, also legally enslaved individuals, who attended Holy Cross, including Patrick Healy, who today is known as “the second founder” of Georgetown University. 

Neither the Healy brothers nor Holy Cross acknowledged their mother’s background and all identified as white students.

Hope After Tragedy

Within three years of opening its doors, enrollment at Holy Cross had increased to 100 students. In spite of very limited finances, the College began to grow until in the summer of 1852 a catastrophic fire destroyed Fenwick Hall.

Despite strong sentiments from the Jesuits to close Holy Cross after the fire, Bishop John B. Fitzpatrick, who had succeeded Bishop Fenwick, and Rev. Anthony F. Ciampi, S.J., the fourth president, lobbied and succeeded in keeping it open. 

Funds were raised to rebuild the College, and in 1853, it opened for the second time. Still the College sat in a vulnerable position in more than $10,000 debt.

Following the fire, Patrick Healy, the brother of James Healy and who also graduated as a valedictorian from Holy Cross, donated $2,300 in 1855. It marked the largest gift in the institution’s history. It’s likely the funds came from his father’s estate, which included the sale of 51 individuals. 

The gift along with many others allowed the College to continue to grow and finally gain a charter from the state. Petitions to secure a charter for the College from the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts were denied in 1847 for a variety of reasons, including anti-Catholic sentiment within the state. Without the charter, the College conducted its business and awarded it diplomas through the president of Georgetown. 

Finally, with the support of Governor John A. Andrew, the Charter was granted on March 24, 1865.