"December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin: On this occasion the Very Reverend Father Founder inaugurated in the chapel of the Crypt the devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord, a devotion introduced and spread by Monsieur Dupont of Tours, whose extraordinary piety is known to all. This ceremony took place immediately after the religious profession of two ecclesiastical novices, Messrs. Martin and Dutour. Monsieur Dupont was present and he himself recited the Litanies of the Holy Face and the prayers following them, at the foot of the altar of the Crypt. All the boarding school pupils, the Community, and a number of outsiders assisted at the ceremony, and everybody was greatly edified at the sentiments of strong faith manifested by Monsieur Dupont on this occasion. Prayers were offered also for the intention of a young student whose eyes were seriously troubling him.” When Father Moreau left the Mother House in Le Mans, to make the Visitation of the American Houses of the Congregation, he sent to all the Houses pictures of the Holy Face, requesting that lights be kept burning before them and that special prayers be said daily to honor the Face of the Saviour. This request was happily answered, and the Holy Face still has its shrine and its light shining day and night in the Houses of Holy Cross. What it meant to the loving heart of the Father Founder is caught within a few lines of the Circular Letter he wrote home to Our Lady of Holy Cross from New York City on August ii, 1857:
"I seem to see you all reunited about me in our beautiful sanctuary— may it be soon!—all on our knees adoring. Again we shall be together in that underground chapel before the adorable Face with which I love to believe you often converse and before which you must keep the little lamp burning until my return, as a pledge of all our hopes and prayers for Our Lady of Holy Cross.”
