The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, of the Third Order Regular of St Francis of Assisi was founded in Menzingen - Switzerland, in the year 1844, by Rev. Father Theodosius Florentini, O.F.M. Capuchin and Co-foundress, Mother Bernarda Heimgartner in response to a specific need, that of education - especially of the poor. The Congregation obtained papal approbation in 1901.

The Order sent its missionaries to the various parts of world over the years.  In July 1930, the then Bishop of the Jaffna Diocese, Rt. Rev. Dr. Alfred Guyomar O.M.I. of revered memory – convinced of the crying need of the service of the sisters, invited them to serve in the civil hospital in Kayts – an island off the Jaffna Peninsula in the north of Sri Lanka.  The first batch of missionaries came to Sri Lanka from Kerala - India in July 1930 to serve the sick, the elderly and the poor. They were nursing sisters, motivated towards improving the nursing care of the patients, irrespective of race, colour or religion. Very soon new needs arose and more service communities were opened viz. Jaffna Government hospital in the Jaffna town, Home for Elders-Colombogam on the outskirts of Jaffna and a Day care centre for children of working mothers in Gurunagar, predominately a fishing village in Jaffna.

The then Ceylon Government banned missionary sisters working in civil hospitals and all missionaries had to leave the country in the year 1960-1961.  The consequence of this left the Congregation with a small number of the indigenous sisters in the island. Our pioneer sisters, then, launched out into new dioceses and started new ministries and our order started to grow again. Today there are 110 members in the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Sri Lanka working in 6 different dioceses, with 19 established communities.

The presence of the sisters in the communities helps people to live in harmony with one another. The ministries they are involved in are open to all people irrespective of race and religion.  The main aim of the sisters is to work towards a ‘holistic growth’ of every person viz. physical, psychological and spiritual growth, which leads to the well being of the person.  This was made very evident during the major evacuation in the north, the sisters moved along with the people and lived as refugees with them. The sisters are present in the midst broken people, patients, children, youth and aged irrespective of their race & religion, thus being messengers of peace and love.