Anthony Hospital, which was the first hospital in the Oklahoma territory. In 1894, Sister Mary Augustine Giesen and six other sisters left the congregation and traveled to Maryville, Missouri, where they formed a separate religious congregation, the Sisters of St. Louis on October 17, 1880, only days after the Catholic Church officially recognized the congregation she founded. Mother Odilia herself would pass away at age 57 in St. Account books from that time identify almost 60 percent of its patients as unable to pay, or "ODL," a designation that stood for "Our Dear Lords." The following year, in 1878, Mother Odilia sent 13 of the congregation's sisters to Mississippi and Tennessee to care for the victims of a yellow fever epidemic. 1877-1880įive years after their arrival, the sisters borrowed what was then an enormous sum of money, $16,000, to open their first hospital, St. Mary of Victories Church, with whom their convent shared a common door. It was not until 1874 that they would receive their formal name: the Sisters of St. They became known as the "Smallpox Sisters," a name that would follow them through their earliest days in St. Louis, they took to the streets, begging for money, supplies, food and medicines – anything to ease the suffering. That first winter, in the midst of a devastating smallpox epidemic in St. 1874īattle-tested from caring for soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War, the sisters came to a city in urgent need of their help. They had just $5 among them, but they carried the faith and compassion that ultimately would become SSM Health. Led by Mother Mary Odilia Berger, the five sisters arrived in St. They were, by almost any measure, a remarkable group of women. SSM Health's rich history began with five German nuns who set out from their homeland in search of religious freedom and to do God's work.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |