News Room - Press Releases

News Release
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Lynne Zultanky, manager
Corporate Communications and Public Relations
Bon Secours Hampton Roads
Office:  757-889-5413; pager:  757-473-7904

Norfolk, Va. (April 17, 2006) –  Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is pleased to congratulate the Sisters of Bon Secours for 125 years of health care ministry in the United States.  The Sisters of Bon Secours are the sponsors of the Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System, a leading health care organization known for providing care for the whole person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours Hampton Roads brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to the residents of Hampton Roads.  It includes:  Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.
           
            In the book, A Century of Caring written when the Sisters celebrated their first century of ministry, it says,
            “The pioneer sisters sowed the seed; their successors nourished it and brought it to fruition, and the sisters of today move forward in faith to meet their commitment and the challenges of the future in the spirit of Bon Secours and the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.”

 On May 21, 2006, the Sisters of Bon Secours will celebrate 125 years of ministry in the United States. The celebration will take place in West Baltimore where it all began. Following the Mass, a reception will be held at Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore, the Sisters’ first hospital in the United States, which opened in 1919. This is also the site of the Sisters’ first convent in the United States.

It all started when Archbishop James Gibbons of the Baltimore Archdiocese heard about the extraordinary nursing care given by the Sisters of Bon Secours to the sick in their homes in Paris and invited the Sisters to Baltimore, Md., to do home nursing. In response to this request, three Sisters of Bon Secours—Sr. St. Ferdinand from the London Convent and Sr. St. Flavie from the convent in Dublin, who were accompanied by Mother St. Domitille, superior of the convent in Dublin—arrived in the United States on May 18, 1881.

The Baltimore Sun wrote of their arrival:

“Three sisters of the Order of Bon Secours, anxiously expected in Baltimore for some time, arrived early yesterday morning, having reached New York the night before on the steamer Parthia of the Cunard Line, after a trip of eleven days from Queenstown…With the exception of occasional fogs, they had not a bad crossing…They will immediately begin to prepare for the installation and reception of other sisters who are to join them in a short time… Thus will be established the first foundation of the “Soeurs du Bon Secours” in America. The object of the order is particularly the care of the sick of all denominations suffering from diseases of any character, whether infectious, contagious or innocuous…”

And so it began. From the very beginning, the Sisters were in great demand and worked night and day caring for the sick, especially the poor, in their homes and not letting a call for help go unanswered. And by 1901, there were 23 Sisters engaged in home nursing in the United States. By this time, they had moved into their own convent (in 1882) and built a chapel (in 1894). 

In A Century of Caring, the Sisters in those early days were described as follows:
            “The Bon Secours sister with her black bag and fluted cap was a familiar figure in the streets of Baltimore. Unaccompanied, and trusting in God, she went out at all hours of the day and night to the homes of the poor and the sick. Her bag was made of heavy surge, the same material as her habit, and contained all that was necessary in the sick room. Sometimes it also carried a sister’s personal belongings for a prolonged stay in the home of a patient. The bag was looked upon with wonder by the poor for it contained so many things that they needed.”

For 38 years, from 1881–1919, the Sisters provided direct nursing care in the homes of the sick and dying in Baltimore. Word of the Sisters’ work quickly spread to other cities in the United States. The poverty, the humility, the generosity, the self-denial, and the spirit of prayer and love of the Sisters during those early years continue to be the foundation upon which the Sisters of Bon Secours have built their lives.

In 1905, a convent was opened in Washington, D.C., to be followed in 1909 by a convent in Detroit, Mich. In both cities, the Sisters continued doing home nursing. In 1912, the first United States Novitiate was opened in Baltimore to welcome women in the United States into the Congregation. And in 1919, the Sisters opened their first hospital to be followed in 1921 by their own school of nursing, both in Baltimore. The reputation of Bon Secours-trained nurses continued to grow. Sisters of Bon Secours soon could be found nursing in institutions in Philadelphia, Pa.; Grosse Pointe, Mich.; Methuen, Mass.; Wildwood, N.J.; Richmond, Va.; and Miami, Fla. In 1958, the Congregation of Bon Secours in the United States became a Province, and, in 1965, the Provincial House for the United States Province moved to Marriottsville, Md., from downtown Baltimore.

In 1983, the Sisters incorporated the Bon Secours Health System, an outgrowth of the Bon Secours Health Care Commission formed in 1973 and the Bon Secours Health Care Corporation formed in 1979. As health care was changing throughout the country, the Sisters had the foresight to realize the importance of operating as a cohesive health care system in order to grow its health care ministry. Over the years, new hospitals and health care facilities, as well as assisted living facilities, joined the system and the influence of the Sisters expanded into South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Kentucky. New facilities also joined the system in Maryland, Michigan, Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

###

Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is a leading health care organization known for providing care for the whole person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to the residents of Hampton Roads. Bon Secours, which employs more than 4,500, includes: Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.