The Latin title for the Congregation of Holy Cross is, Congregatio a Sancta Cruce.  The C.S.C. is taken from the first letter of each main word.  It works for the French name also, La Congregation de Sainte Croix.  It is something to note that we are the Congregation of Holy Cross rather than the Congregation of the Holy Cross.  The Community gets its name from a suburb of Le Mans, France called Sainte Croix, or Holy Cross (which we're pretty sure is named after the Cross of Christ!)  Interesting.

In the troubled period following the French Revolution Basil Anthony Moreau, a priest of the diocese of Le Mans, France, founded the Congregation of Holy Cross.  He originally planned to simply organize a group of priests to be auxiliaries to fill in where needed in the diocese.  However, James Francis Dujarie, pastor of Ruille-sur-Loir and founder of the Brothers of Saint Joseph fifteen years earlier, fell ill and the bishop asked Fr. Moreau to take responsibility for both groups.  He united the priests and brothers by the Fundamental Act of 1 March 1837.  In 1838 he gave a rule of life to a small band of laywomen who cared for the priests and brothers and would become the founding group of the women of Holy Cross.  On 15 August 1840 Basil Moreau himself became the first person to publicly profess vows as a religious of the Congregation of Sainte-Croix, or Holy Cross.  Fr. Moreau died on January 20, 1873 and his cause for beatification was opened in 1946.  On April 12, 2003 the late Pope John Paul II declared him venerable, the title one receives before beatification in recognition of his life of heroic virtue.