The Community of the Sisters of the Holy Cross originated from the spiritual movement of the Work of the Holy Angels, which emerged in 1949 in Innsbruck.

In various countries, small communities of Sisters formed in order to live a life of professed vows in the spirit of the Work. Their rule was written by Mother Gabriele Bitterlich and was approved in 1967 by the Archbishop of Salzburg for his diocese, and in 1970 by the Bishop of Freiburg for the entire Community of the Sisters.

Mother Gabriele Bitterlich

On November 9, 2002, the Community of the Sisters of the Holy Cross was canonically erected as an Institute of Consecrated Life in the Diocese of Innsbruck by Archbishop Alois Kothgasser. We are aggregated to the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross and together form one religious family of the same spirituality.

The Community was raised to an Institute of Pontifical Right on April 25, 2018.