Holy Cross Church, St Helens

Holy Cross and St Helen Church is a Roman Catholic church in St Helens, Merseyside. It was built in 1860 by the Society of Jesus. It was designed by Joseph John Scoles and is a Grade II listed building.HistoryThe church was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1860. Fr Thomas Seed, the head of the Jesuits in Britain, who also founded Sacred Heart Church in Edinburgh laid the foundation stone of the church on 3 May 1860, what was then Feast of the Finding of the True Cross.The church was designed by Joseph John Scoles who also designed St Ignatius Church, Preston in Lancashire, Immaculate Conception Church, Farm Street in London and the Church of Saint Francis Xavier, Liverpool. Construction of the church lasted for almost two years and the church was opened on 1 May 1862.In the church there is a memorial stone dated 1933, showing when the Jesuits handed over the church to the Archdiocese of Liverpool, who have continued to administer it ever since.ParishIn 2010, the parish was merged with the nearby Church of St Mary, Lowe House in the centre of St Helens to become the parish of Holy Cross and St Mary. However this was revised by the Archdiocese in 2014 when St. Mary's Lowe House was paired with St. Thomas of Canterbury, Dentons Green under one priest, with Holy Cross & St. Helen reverting to a single parish under a new Parish Priest.