[1] At the beginning of the 1800s the site, then called Notre-Dame de Bel-Air, comprised a main house with additional buildings and a surrounding property of over 36,000 square meters.

On December 24, 1832, the site was given as a gift to Father Basil Moreau by Jobbé Delile, an honorary canon of the Cathedral of Le Mans.

The church was consecrated on June 17, 1857, by Cardinal François Donnet, archbishop of Bordeaux, with the presence of nine other bishops and of Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes.

[2] In 1837, Moreau also brought to the site the pupils of the pensionnat, a primary boarding school part of the educational mission of his congregation, the Institution Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix.

The properties were sold at auction on October 2, 1869, and were purchased by the Marquis de Nicolay, who then gave possession of the church and school to the Jesuits.

[2] The church building was rescued by intervention of Cardinal Georges Grente, bishop of Le Mans from 1918–1959, who helped the Congregation of Holy Cross retake possession of it in 1931.