On June 6, 1875, the first two members of the Sisters of the Holy Cross arrived in Salt Lake City. Within six months they built a school and a hospital.
The two Catholic sisters who came to Utah in 1875 had served as nurses during the Civil War. Knowing their work, a Catholic bishop asked them to make the trek out west. Here’s Emmie Gardner, the executive director of Holy Cross Ministries.
“We had tons of miners here, immigrant workforce, primarily Irish and so he [Bishop Scanlon] just said, ‘Can you come out here and help us?’ And the amazing thing was, within six months, they had a hospital built, they had a school built, and all of this by doing their own fundraising,” Gardner said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Thursday. “And, you know, I think it's what sort of coined, what Brigham Young said about them, that they were just like incredibly industrious, compassionate women who wanted to make a difference in the community.”
Over the years, Gardner said an orphanage and more schools and hospitals were built, including a nursing school. By the 1990s, the sisters couldn’t compete with the Intermountain and University of Utah health systems, so they sold the hospitals and kept the money in Utah, serving a similar population, immigrants, the poor and underserved.
“They said, you know, this is Utah money, and we're invested in Utah. And how can we pivot? And how can we respond? So, they did this amazing listening tour and really resonated with the immigrant population back then,” she said. “And so, they founded Holy Cross Ministries as a social service agency, a 501(c)3 to truly provide support and services primarily to that immigrant population. And so, we do in our three main pillars, health, education and justice and again, supporting folks. The reality is nine out of 10 of our clients are immigrant clients. 75% of them are uninsured.”
Holy Cross Ministries Development Director Andy Cier said an invitation-only celebration is taking place on Friday, June 20, at 5 p.m. at Park City’s Miners Hospital.
“Anyone who wants to reach out to us, we'll send you an invite, because it's just a way to celebrate the history of the sisters, particularly in Park City and also with some of our Irish immigrants,” Cier said. “In fact, we're going to have Michael O’Brien, who writes for the Salt Lake Tribune, is also an attorney, and he's on our board, but he really knows the history of the sisters, and he's going to be speaking.”
In addition, Roger McDonough, the great grandson of Bartley McDonough who was on the original board of the Miners Hospital, and was very active in Park City’s mining community and the unions in the 1880s will also be presenting.
To request an invitation to the celebration, email Andy Cier at acier@hcmutah.org
