William Hickley Gross, C.Ss.R., (June 12, 1837 – November 14, 1898) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who was a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.

[4] Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Redemptorists received permission from the Vatican to advance Gross to holy orders sooner than permitted under church law so that he could avoid the military draft.

[6] After six months of studies,[1] Gross was assigned as chaplain to wounded Union Army soldiers at an hospital in Annapolis.

[5] He selected as his episcopal motto: "Lumen aeternum mundo effudit" (Latin: "She gave forth to the world the Everlasting Light").

[2] In addition to erecting several churches, schools, orphanages, and hospitals, he opened a men's college at Macon, Georgia, introduced the Jesuits and Benedictines to the diocese, and established a diocesan newspaper, The Southern Cross, in 1875.

[5] After falling ill while giving a retreat for Redemptorist students in Annapolis, William Gross died on November 14, 1898, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Baltimore, at age 61.