The parish serves a multiethnic congregation and is considered a mainstay of the local Italian-American community. Masses are said in English, Spanish, and Italian.[2]
History
The original church building after the fire
Holy Cross Parish was founded in 1906 as a mission of Saint Patrick Parish to serve Italian immigrants in the Northside neighborhood of San Jose. The Diocese of San Jose had not yet been established; both parishes belonged to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.[1] Holy Cross was designated an Italian national parish in 1911.[2]
The parish's original church building was constructed in 1919 and dedicated in 1920.[1] The structure was gutted by a four-alarm fire on November 16, 2014,[3] and demolished in June 2015.[4] After the fire, the parish held Masses in Scalabrini Hall, the parish bingo hall. On May 25, 2018, a new church building was dedicated on the site of the original church. Hanging above the altar is a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) antique Italian gilded wood crucifix that had hung in the original church but was spared by the fire.[2][3][5]
