Sisters of St. Mary

Sisters of St. Mary (SSM) was a Roman Catholic religious order for women based in St. Louis, Missouri that founded hospitals throughout the Midwest. It is now called the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.

The order was founded in 1872 by Mother Mary Odilia Berger who emigrated to St. Louis from Germany. It shared a door with St. Mary of Victories Church in downtown St. Louis.

Anna Katherine (later Mother Odilia) Berger was born in Regen, Bavaria. In 1858 she joined the Poor Franciscans of Pirmasens, which later became the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family, founded by Father (Dr.) Paul Joseph Nardini (scheduled to be beatified this year); sent to beg in Paris.

In 1866 she co-founded the Sister Servants of the Sacred Heart in Paris with Father Victor Braun, but had to flee Paris when the city was besieged during the Franco-Prussian War. After living several years in Elberfeld in the Rhineland, she emigrated to St. Louis in 1872. In St. Louis she founded the Sisters of St. Mary. In 1877 the order borrowed $16,000 to open St. Mary's Infirmary in St. Louis. In 1878 a third of the members of the order were sent to Canton, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee during a Yellow Fever outbreak. Five sisters were to die.

In 1894 Mary Augustine Giesen led six other sisters to Maryville, Missouri from St. Louis where they formed the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville and founded the first full fledged hospital in the town.

In 1985 the two orders merged to form the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.

20 hospitals now are operated as SSM Health Care (SSMHC) in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

External links

* [http://www.fsmonline.org/ Official website]