On Sunday, May 30, Bishop Edward Weisenburger and Bishop Emeritus Gerald Kicanas honored the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet at the dedication of a courtyard in their name. Sisters across the country gathered to celebrate Mass and express gratitude for their long legacy in our Southern Arizona community.
Jacqueline Ann Ferguson continues the story of the "Trek of the Seven Sisters" through the lens of their philanthropic efforts, based on sources in the archives housed at St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson, previously owned by the Carondelet Health Network. Starting with a recap of the founding of the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in France, the journey moves to their American base in St Louis, the trek to Arizona, and then traces their humanitarian efforts in the Tucson/Southern Arizona area.
"My focus is the continued thread of their religious mission as exemplified in their innovative and cutting-edge educational and health accomplishments in the desert Southwest," said Ferguson. "Their fundraising included being lowered into mining shafts in order to solicit funds from miners. The Sisters creatively adapted to a harsh and austere environment to meet fundamental needs of all sectors, including the marginalized, an enormous concern even today."
Did you know that you can still be cared for in Arizona’s first hospital – built in 1880? Still in full operation today, St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson was the first and only hospital in Arizona Territory and still sits at the base of “A” Mountain on Tucson’s west side. It was founded by young French women, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who made the “trek” from their base in St. Louis, Missouri, to Tucson in the Arizona Territory – by railroad, boars and covered wagons.
These radical, young, pioneering ladies did not just build a frontier hospital. They innovated medical care, being the first here to adopt new scientific discoveries such as the first x-ray technology, first pharmacy, blood bank and iron lung among other breakthroughs.
They also raised funds in new ways. They wrote and sold pamphlets, raffles, and even went down in the mineshafts in a great kettle by a pulley to ask miners for money. Later the Sisters conducted joint fundraising with new Tucson Medical Center, sharing a Ford Foundation grant.
With a hostile desert environment and almost no resources, these women adapted themselves and their ministry to the needs of the age and the people.