The Marianites of Holy Cross (MSC) is a Catholic congregation of nuns, founded in Le Mans, France, in 1841, by Fr Basil Moreau.

[1] The following year he gave a rule of life to a group of devout laywomen who assisted the priests and brothers, first by doing domestic work, then in teaching and nursing.

At the request of Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, Bishop of Vincennes, Moreau sent some sisters who established in 1844, in Bertrand, Michigan, a school for girls.

In 1846 Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal asked Moreau, whom he had visited at Holy Cross, to send him sisters whom he might establish in his diocese.

The unity of the Marianites of Holy Cross would not last long: competing authorities at Notre Dame and Le Mans, complicated by slow communications over large distances, led to the withdrawal of the sisters at Indiana in 1867 and Quebec in 1883.

With the opening of the Archdiocesan Archbishop Hannan High School in Meraux, enrollment was reduced and Holy Angels closed in 1992.

[3] In 1965 the Marianites of Holy Cross founded Our Lady of Prompt Succor Nursing Home to provide long-term health care and short term rehabilitation services to the surrounding communities.

[4] The Marianites of Holy Cross continue to work in their traditional geographical areas of Le Mans, France and New Orleans, Louisiana.

[5] Sister Suellen Tennyson, age 83, who was at one time head of the congregation was kidnapped on the night of 4–5 April 2022 while working in Burkina Faso.