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Contact: Rod Gardner
Publications Specialist
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Today's Date: September 26, 2008
St. Joseph’s co-workers celebrate 120th anniversary on Mercy Day
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – On Wednesday, September 24, a date known as Mercy Day among Sisters of Mercy ministries throughout the world, over 2,000 St. Joseph’s Mercy Health System co-workers celebrated the 120th anniversary of the hospital’s opening.
In an effort to care for the poor and needy, Catherine McAuley opened the House of Mercy on Baggot Street in Dublin, Ireland on September 24, 1827. Approximately four years later (December 10, 1831), the young Irishwoman founded the Sisters of Mercy religious order, a ministry that 61 years later arrived in Hot Springs via the September 24, 1888 opening of St. Joseph’s Infirmary. Mercy Day annually recognizes McAuley’s opening of the House of Mercy, so St. Joseph’s co-workers were actually able to observe a pair of important Sisters of Mercy occasions.
“The purpose of the House of Mercy was to prepare residents of Dublin for employment, self sufficiency and to respect their human dignity,” said Tim Johnsen, St. Joseph’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Skeptics called it ‘Kitty’s Folly’ because her intentions were so daunting, but Catherine’s determination and example attracted companions willing to give of their time and money to help. In 1831 those companions became the religious order of the Sisters of Mercy. From those humble beginnings, God has blessed the ministry in a way that its presence reaches around the world in caring for the poor, tending the sick and educating the young.
“We at St. Joseph’s are a part of that legacy, and this year on Mercy Day we also celebrated the founding of our hospital 120 years ago by two Sisters of Mercy from Little Rock. They (Mother Mary Aloysius and Sister Mary Clare) were sent to Hot Springs from St. Mary’s Convent, with $1 in operating expenses and instructions to turn a donated five-story frame house into a 30-bed hospital named St. Joseph’s Infirmary. Their confidence mirrored that of Catherine when she first started the Sisters of Mercy ministry, but it is wonderful to be able to celebrate both as immense successes.”
As a thank you from the Sisters of Mercy for all of their hard work and dedication, St. Joseph’s co-workers were the recipients of a complimentary meal and pair of Mercy Day gifts. Each received a small umbrella with Mercy and the phrase Celebrating 120 Years inscribed on it and a commemorative book mark. The book mark had the front of an 1888 one dollar bill on one side and a brief history of events leading up to and including the opening of St. Joseph’s on the other.
The groundwork for St. Joseph’s was laid when the Reverend Patrick McGowan, a devoted friend of the Sisters of Mercy, asked Hot Springs physician Dr. J.M. Keller to buy a building and surrounding property that was suitable for the location of a hospital. McGowan then donated the property and its building, a five-story frame house valued at $10,000, to the Sisters of Mercy.
A member of the Sisters of Mercy Health System, St. Joseph’s is a not-for-profit Catholic healthcare organization and three-time recipient of the large-company Gold Award at the Arkansas Governor’s Work-Life Balance Awards ceremony in the spring of 2006, 2007 and 2008. For more information on the Governor’s Work-Life Balance Awards, as well as services and employment opportunities offered by St. Joseph’s, please visit saintjosephs.com.
