By February 6, 1902, a group of Lithuanians formed the Society of St. Vincent Ferrer. A committee, consisting of Lithuanians, was created, and the group approached Archbishop Quigley with a desire to create a Lithuanian parish. Quigley agreed to the request, and on February 1, 1904, ten lots on 46th Street between Hermitage and Wood Streets were purchased by the Society of St Vincent Ferrer. On June 16, 1904, Alexander Skrypko started organizing the new parish. Holy Cross was founded in 1904 as a "national parish" for Lithuanians in Chicago living in the Back of the Yards area, most of whom were employed at the nearby Union Stock Yards. By 1909, Skyrpko, referred to as "Skripka", was being assisted by Reverend Ezerskis. On October 26, 1913, Quigley laid the new church's cornerstone. The church was completed in 1915, and the first mass celebrated in it occurred on Wednesday, September 15, 1915, the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows. The parish fell on hard times in the 1970s after the closure of the stockyards, resulting in a merger with the neighboring parish of The Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 2004 the parish celebrated its 100-year anniversary.