Fidelis of the Cross was the religious name taken by James Kent Stone (1840–1921), a prominent figure in American intellectual life who became a Catholic priest and missionary. After graduating from Harvard, Stone became a professor and college president, but a fervent search for truth led him to convert to Catholicism in 1869. He joined the Paulist order and later the Passionists, taking the name Fidelis of the Cross, and became a highly admired preacher and missionary in South America and the United States