# Who is (was) St. Croix? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 4, 2001, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386 "2001-05-04T20:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/1 "2001-05-04T20:44:10Z")
Not an earthshaking question, but who was St. Croix? Was there such a person? My French (is it French?) is negligible but does “croix” translate to “cross”, so that the correct interpretation would be “holy cross”, a thing rather than a person? Or was there a fella named Croix who did good works and was elevated to sainthood? Did he live in the Virgin Islands? Catholics? Francophiles? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/2 "2001-05-04T21:23:04Z")
St. Croix is the French cousin of the famous Santa Cruz of Spain and Holy Cross College in Worscester, Mass. It’s a concept, not a person. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/3 "2001-05-04T21:24:51Z")
I lived in Saint Croix Falls, WI, for part of last year. Here’s a snippet from the county history: > [@](#): > > In 1840 the Legislature of Wisconsin created the county of St. Croix, carrying the same name as the bordering river, named from Monsieur St. Croix, an explorer who drowned at the mouth of the river late in the seventeenth century. Another account said Father Hennepin gave this region the French name St. Croix (originally Ste Croix) which means Holy Cross. Don’t know if St Croix, USVI is named for the same Monsieur or not. ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/4 "2001-05-04T22:21:48Z")
You see that stupid Travelocity commercial too? ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/5 "2001-05-05T01:17:28Z")
Bob T is right-- the Holy Cross is just the cross, the “True Cross” that JC allegedly died on and supposedly was found by St Helen, hence the instrument of our alleged salvation. There are a lot of old churches (not necessarily named after a French guy, who was named after the holy cross)-- Heiligen Kreuz-es, and the aforementioned Santa Cruz-es are variants (FYI: the first university in the Americas was the Universidad de Santa Cruz del Tlatelolco outside Mexico City (hit its peak in the 1570’s, I think. . .). San Sepulchre, Holy Blood/Corpus Christi, Holy Ghost-- there are lots of “saints” or “holies” that weren’t people. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/6 "2001-05-05T04:39:15Z")
Interesting… I know of several churches named after “Saint John of the Cross”, (or San Juan de la Cruz), and I would’ve guessed that “St. Croix/Cross/Cruz” was a shortened form of that. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/7 "2001-05-05T04:51:19Z")
No - S. John of the Cross was a Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Church in the 16th century. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/8 "2001-05-05T05:28:50Z")
It’s only confusing because in English we have separate words for “saint” and “holy”. Nevertheless, I had to help a kid in the library who had to report on Santa Cruz and he wanted a book about the person. It was an honest mistake since “Cruz” is a first name in Spanish. Santa Cruz had a cousin named Santa Fe. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/9 "2001-05-05T05:31:44Z")
not to mention his brother Santa Claus 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/10 "2001-05-05T07:27:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capybara \* > \*\*San Sepulchre, **Holy Blood/Corpus Christi** , Holy Ghost-- there are lots of “saints” or “holies” that weren’t people. \*\* (bolding mine) Just noting that “corpus christi” is “body of christ”, as in the sacrifice, or the sacrament of communion(host). The syntax was off a bit in that sentence. I’m sure you didn’t mean to combine them to mean the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/11 "2001-05-05T07:31:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capybara \* > San Sepulchre, **Holy Blood/Corpus Christi** , Holy Ghost-- there are lots of “saints” or “holies” that weren’t people. (bolding mine) That bolding. Durrr… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/12 "2001-05-05T15:12:42Z")
and “Sacred Heart” - which I’ve never understood? ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-was-st-croix/64386/13 "2001-05-06T17:57:48Z")
In the book lords of discipline theres a family of St. Croixes, but the names could have been changed