When we ground an educational experience in spirituality, community, and service, we radiate hope to all who pass through the doors. Since 1910, Holy Trinity High School has been rooted in the rich teachings and traditions of the Brothers of Holy Cross. Originally founded to educate the growing number of Polish immigrants on the near North Side of Chicago, we continue to educate youth from across the city, recognizing the unique strengths and aspirations of each student and challenging them to embrace their potential.
Holy Trinity is part of a supportive, worldwide community of educational institutions, including nearly 30 distinguished high schools and colleges, including the University of Notre Dame. As a Holy Cross High School, our mission statement is a moral imperative guiding and energizing the school’s purpose.
Mission Statement
Holy Trinity High School, a school in the Holy Cross tradition, challenges and nurtures students academically, spiritually, and personally as they prepare to lead lives of leadership and service.
Understanding Holy Trinity’s origin, underpinning Holy Cross influences, and energies to reinvent itself is in the best interest of preparing young people to be informed, competent, morally and ethically courageous persons of leadership locally and globally.
Notable Holy Cross Figures
In 1820, Rev. Jacques Dujarié (1767-1838) began assembling a group of young men to instruct the youth in the countryside of Northwestern France. As a result of the French Revolution, nearly a whole generation in France had grown up with little to no formal education in general nor matters of faith.
Fr. Dujarié, who had been ordained in secret during the Revolution, provided young men with rudimentary training and then sent them out to rural parishes to teach. These men became the Brothers of St. Joseph. As he grew in age and his health declined, Fr. Dujarié turned over the leadership of the brothers on August 31, 1835, to a young and energetic priest named Basil Moreau.
Blessed Basil Moreau (1799-1873), who had been ordained in 1821, organized a group of Auxiliary Priests to assist the diocese by preaching parish missions and by instructing the youth. For the sake of their common mission as educators in the faith, Moreau joined Dujarie’s Brothers of St. Joseph with the Auxiliary Priests in 1837. The newly established Association of Holy Cross took its name from the Sainte-Croix neighborhood in Le Mans in which it was formed.
Moreau believed that the work that God had entrusted to Holy Cross extended beyond the borders of France to the rest of the world, and because of his dedication to his vision, Holy Cross today serves in nearly 20 countries on five continents.
Alfred Bessette was born in Quebec on August 9, 1845. He had little formal education, but from an early age had a lively faith and a strong devotion to St. Joseph. His childhood pastor encouraged him to consider a vocation to religious life. He sent Alfred to the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1870 where he took the name André, the name of his childhood pastor. Brother André was considered a healer, and thousands of people came to him to pray for their health. He died on January 6, 1937 at the age of 91. On October 17, 2010, St. André Bessette became first saint of the Congregation of Holy Cross when he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.