Ascension's History
Excerpts from each founding religious community
Alexian Brothers
The Alexian Brothers tradition began more than 800 years ago in Europe as small groups of laymen banded together to care for persons who were poor, sick, and helpless. In 1347 when the Black Plague struck, the Brothers were there to ease the pain of those in greatest need. They became an official religious order in 1472, under the Cellites. Choosing St. Alexius as their patron, they gradually became known as the Alexian Brothers.
The Brothers’ ministry came to the United States in 1866 when Brother Bonaventure Thelen arrived in New York from Germany. He later founded a hospital in a wood frame house in Chicago where in his arms he carried the hospital's first patient on June 12, 1866. That summer, the cholera epidemic hit Chicago and the Brothers soon earned a local reputation for compassion and professional expertise, which endures to this day.
For seven centuries the Alexian Brothers have served society’s most disadvantaged persons. For example, during an era when many institutions were questioning their positions on HIV/AIDS, the Alexian Brothers forged ahead to promote care instead of debate. In the early days of AIDS, it wasn't popular for many religious institutions to associate themselves with the issues related to, and populations affected by, the disease. Yet, in this unsympathetic environment, the Alexian Brothers made a decision to create an entire program of care for those suffering and in need.
Today, the Alexian Brothers ministries are part of the Ascension Illinois Ministry Market.
Additional information on the Alexian Brothers: http://www.alexianbrothers.org/aboutus/congregation-of-alexian-brothers-history/
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph
The Sisters of St. Joseph began with six women meeting in a small kitchen in LePuy, France in 1650 who shared a desire to grow in their love of God and serve the unmet needs of the people around them, whom they came to call their “dear neighbors.” These women, with the spiritual direction of a Jesuit priest, Jean Pierre Medaille, formed the first community of Sisters of St. Joseph. These sisters lived simply and among the people, rather than behind cloistered walls as was the norm for women religious of the time.
Over the next century, the Congregation experienced rapid growth in France, until it disbanded during the civil and religious unrest of the French Revolution. Unwilling to renounce their religious freedom, many of the sisters, led by Jeanne Fontbonne (Mother St. John Fontbonne), were imprisoned or forced into hiding where they lived as dedicated lay women.
Under the direction of Mother St. John, seven sisters journeyed from France to America in 1836 to work with deaf children in St. Louis at the invitation of the Bishop. From there, new communities were formed throughout the United States and Canada, including the seven founding communities which make up the current-day Congregation of St. Joseph.
Here is one of their stories from our Michigan ministry market: On September 19, 1917, the first patient wheeled up the drive to the four-story brick structure of the new Borgess Hospital. Within a year after its opening, staff faced one of the worst crises in its and the nation’s history: the influenza pandemic of 1918 during which one out of every four persons became ill.
Particularly hard hit were Army training camps. The death toll among American soldiers equaled nearly 50 percent of those killed in combat. The disease quickly spread beyond the military to the civilian populations of Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and other nearby urban areas, striking the Nazareth community of the Sisters of St. Joseph in October. Thirty Sisters fell ill, as did scores of students at the two schools located there.
The Sisters promptly placed New Borgess Hospital at the disposal of health officials and every available Sister in Kalamazoo reported for duty at the hospital, administering to the hundreds of suffering patients day and night. Wards were packed with influenza victims, and hallways were jammed with cots. The Sisters gave up their own beds, snatching a few hours of sleep in storerooms, closets or wherever they could find a vacant space.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, caring for the patients was not the Sisters’ only duty. They tilled a vegetable garden and maintained cows and chickens to supplement the hospital food supply. They cleaned and stocked and made supply runs. Thanks in great part to their dedication, the death toll remained relatively low in Kalamazoo.
Over the years, the Sisters expanded their sites of care and by 1998 the ministry had grown into the Sisters of St. Joseph Health System.
Additional information about the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph can be found at: https://www.csjoseph.org/our-heritage/
Daughters of Charity
In the 19th century, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton founded a community of Sisters in the United States that later joined with the Daughters of Charity in France. This became the first community of Daughters in the United States, inspired by the ministry of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marilliac.
Early on, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton accepted an invitation to Emmitsburg, MD where she established a religious community dedicated to the care of the children of the poor. She is credited with creating the first Catholic school system in America. Mother Seton, canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1975, passed away in 1821, but the work of the Daughters of Charity was far from complete.
The first Catholic health care institution in the United States, Mullanphy hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, was opened by the sisters in 1828 with an associated orphanage and school. This was quickly followed by another Catholic hospital opening in Cincinnati, Ohio the next year.
A few decades later, three Daughters of Charity arrived in Milwaukee in 1846 where they encountered a number of critical health needs: outbreaks of typhoid, cholera, and smallpox. In 1848, they opened St. John’s Infirmary near St. John’s Cathedral in downtown. During that time, the city of Milwaukee passed ordinances that fined ship captains and stage drivers who brought sick passengers into the city.
The Sisters watched as ship captains cast overboard the bodies of passengers who had succumbed to typhoid. The Sisters felt strongly that this was not upholding the dignity of their fellow human beings. In response, they set up quarantine protocols at the infirmary which allowed them to more safely care for patients without spreading the disease to others. While they faced fatigue, contagion, and disease themselves, they were most frustrated by the language barriers that prevented them providing spiritual care to their immigrant patients.
Years later, the infirmary was renamed St. Mary’s Hospital, which was Wisconsin’s first private hospital, and is now known as Ascension Columbia-St. Mary’s Hospital. Over the course of the decades, the Daughters expanded their sites of care across the country transitioning from the 1940s through 1986 into what became known as the Daughters of Charity National Health System.
Additional information on the Daughters of Charity: https://daughtersofcharity.org/
Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother
In 1885, Mother Frances Streitel received Papal approval to establish a new congregation which became known as the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Like Mary who stood near the cross of Jesus, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother hear the call of the many people who suffer in body, mind and spirit and try to respond appropriately in the different cultural realities. The Sisters arrived in Wichita, KS in 1889 first to raise money and quickly realized the great need of the communities. The Sisters took over management of St. Francis Hospital and built a vibrant health organization.
At a cornerstone laying in 1957, the local Bishop is quoted as saying “This is the third time in ten years that I have had the high honor and privilege of blessing and dedicating to God and to the service of sick humanity three magnificent additions to what was many years ago a very humble institution. I consider the growth and development of St. Francis Hospital as the greatest story in the history of Wichita. It is a Cinderella story, almost unbelievable. [It’s been achieved through] a group of dedicated women who work seven days a week and every week of the year...”
Over the decades, the Sisters expanded their sites of care significantly throughout the midwest and as far north as the Canadian border. Going to where the need is greatest, the Sisters established innovative sites of care in everywhere from major cities to logging camps and even above a saloon in Northern Wisconsin. Eventually founding Marian Health Care System, the Sisters joined the Ascension system in 2013.
Additional information on the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother: https://www.ssmgen.org/index.php?lang=en
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet share their French roots with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth, established in mid-seventeenth century France. The first Sisters came from Lyon to the United States in 1836 in response to a request from Bishop Joseph Rosati for a small group of religious to open a school for the deaf in St. Louis. They established two convents in Cahokia, Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis and in Carondelet, Missouri, a village on the outskirts of St. Louis.
In the 1870s, the Sisters operated St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum in Chicago, Illinois which occasioned Sister Mary Incarnation McDonough to share this account of the Great Chicago Fire. She had only been in Chicago for about five or six weeks when the fire erupted. Mother Mary Joseph, the director of St. Joseph’s, and her staff of 14 sisters (including Sister Incarnation) were in charge of 280 children between the ages of three weeks and 18 years old, many with physical disabilities.
Late in the evening on October 9, 1871 Sisters Incarnation and Michael noticed the bright glow of fire in the sky. Sister Incarnation wrote that “the noise and restlessness of the people gave us to understand that it was no ordinary fire.” The Sisters woke and dressed the children while being “careful not to mention the word ‘fire’ in order to prevent a panic.”
After successfully evacuating nearly 300 people from the building, they “formed a close line of march” starting northward and traveled all night by foot. Each Sister carried two infants each, and the older children looked after the younger ones until they reached safety outside the city limits around 4 a.m.
The Sisters began their hospital ministry in 1908 when they opened a facility in Elmira, New York. They went on to provide hospital-based and home care in communities across Midwestern and Southern parts of the country. For example, in Selma, AL, the Sisters provided one of the few sites of medical care to the African-American community, frequently treating persons who had been beaten by white supremacists. The Sisters marched on Selma, joined Civil Rights actions, and continued to provide direct care to the community throughout the course of many decades.
In 1981, the Sisters brought together 13 healthcare institutions to form the Health Care Corporate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, later named Carondelet Health System.
Additional information on the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet: https://csjcarondelet.org/
Ascension Sponsor History
The original sponsoring organizations of the healthcare ministries that have come together as Ascension established a foundation that continues shaping our work today.
They are:
- Four provinces of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (now combined into the St. Louise Province)
- Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth (now part of Congregation of St. Joseph)
- Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
- Congregation of Alexian Brothers
- Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother
In 1999, the Daughters of Charity National Health System and the Sisters of St. Joseph Health System came together to form Ascension Health, a national Catholic healthcare system, in order to extend into the future a shared healing Mission — caring for those persons who are poor and most in need — as well as a common Vision and set of core Values.
In 2002, Carondelet Health System joined Ascension, with the Alexian Brothers joining in 2012 and Marian Health System joining in 2013.
In 2010, our sponsors recognized Ascension Health as a ministry of the Catholic Church transcending individual sponsoring organizations and determined a non-congregational sponsorship model would strengthen our ministry.
In 2011 the Vatican approved creation of a non-congregational public juridic person (PJP) to serve as the sole Sponsor of Ascension Health, which transitioned to become the Sponsor of Ascension, the new parent organization created in 2012.
We refer to it as a “Ministerial Public Juridic Person” (MPJP) to distinguish it from those PJPs whose members all belong to a particular society of apostolic life, religious order or congregation. The MPJP – known as Ascension Sponsor – assures Ascension as a ministry will be sustained and strengthened over time, with both religious and lay persons serving as members.
Ascension Health formed Ascension in 2012 to further its Mission of serving all persons especially those living in poverty and who are struggling the most, and to deliver compassionate, personalized care and lead healthcare transformation in the United States. Restructured as Ascension, we are positioned to meet the evolving needs of the people and communities we serve in the rapidly changing healthcare environment. Today, we continue an 800-year legacy and promise set forth by our original sponsor organizations to provide faith-based healthcare to those in need.