Opened only nine years after the Catholic academy in Boston was
destroyed by nativists, the College of the Holy Cross was a pet project
of Boston's second bishop, Benedict Fenwick-a Jesuit college in the
midst of Yankee New England. At first an isolated, exclusively Catholic
operation offering a seven-year humanities program, the College failed
to obtain a charter by the Massachusetts General Court until 1865. After
1900, Holy Cross became a four-year college in the American pattern and
advanced to its present level by integrating important principles of
Jesuit liberal arts education with the academic traditions of the
strongest educational region in the nation.
Utilizing the universal Jesuit Plan of Studies, the college's leaders at
first stressed connections with other Jesuit institutions in a program
that emphasized classical languages, philosophy, history, mathematics,
and natural sciences. About 1900, a second era began when the curriculum
was altered to bring Holy Cross into conformity with the modern
educational pattern: college offerings were amplified and the prep
school was dropped. During the 1960s, a third era opened. It was
characterized by coeducation, a more open curriculum, growing
involvement of non-Jesuit faculty and administrators, the transition to
a board of lay trustees, and rising academic standards as Holy Cross
took its place as the foremost Jesuit school among four-year liberal
arts colleges. Thy Honored Name highlights the confluence of two
strong educational traditions-Puritan and Jesuit-and the growing
appreciation of their compatibility. It is also an account of efforts to
promote academic excellence without losing an authentically Jesuit
identity in a region where many formerly religious schools have become
secular. The book will hold interest for persons who study educational
and religious history, for individuals interested in the development of
New England and Worcester, and for friends of Holy Cross.
