Inheritors of a tradition over 1,500 years old, the Benedictine Sisters of Elk County were the first women following the centuries old Rule of Saint Benedict to establish a monastery in the United States of America. These Sisters came from the Abbey of Saint Walburga in Eichstatt, Germany in 1852 and established Saint Joseph Monastery in Saint Marys, then little more than a clearing in the midst of a great forest. Benedictine monasteries of men and women have traditionally sunk deep roots into the soil around them. So it proved with Mother Benedicta Riepp, Sister Walburga Dietrich and Sister Maura Flieger. Called to Pennsylvania as teachers, they and the Sisters who came after them proved remarkably well - attuned to the needs of the local community and were ready to respond whenever the people of Saint Marys called on them for assistance.

Seeing themselves as a monastic community, the Benedictine Sisters of Saint Joseph Monastery were not founded for a particular apostolate or ministry, but to live and pray together, and to serve God's people when a need was made known to them. The need for educators brought the Sisters to Saint Marys. They served in parish schools, and in their own Saint Benedict Academy. When the people of Saint Marys asked for Sisters to staff a hospital, the Benedictines altered their cloistered way of life and rose to the challenge.

Saint Marys Regional Medical Center began as the Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in 1922. The global Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918/1919 showed the people of Elk County how necessary a hospital was to their community. The hospital opened in the former monastery of the Benedictine Monks. From the first, it was agreed that the Sisters would staff the hospital. That part of the dream was realized only in 1933, after sufficient Sisters had been trained as nurses, anesthetists and administrators.

Just a year after the Sisters began their service at the hospital, their devotion to the local community was tested and found to be well - placed. Fire devastated the structure. Sister Loretta LaQue, administrator, evacuated the patients to the convent. Not a life was lost; no patient was injured. And in the aftermath of the fire, the Benedictine Sisters showed their devotion to the people of Saint Marys.

"To give the town a hospital until it could rebuild, the Benedictine Sisters had to make a great sacrifice," the Medical Center's history records. The Sisters decided to close their academy, and give the space for the use of a temporary hospital. "It's for the good of Saint Marys, and we must make every sacrifice," said Mother Helen, the superior. "For the Benedictines to give up such a cherished part of their life in order to better serve the whole community is one of the greatest acts of generosity in the whole history of Saint Marys." the record states.

Ownership of the hospital was transferred to the Sisters in 1937. Rebuilding began in 1939, and hospital again opened its doors in its own building in 1941. Additions to the structure were completed with community help. In 1959 the Sisters financed the construction of an adjoining convent and chapel, using "their own money . . . so that no funds would be taken from the new wing of the hospital. This is another example of their unstinting generosity and concern for the community."

Concern for the community also prompted the Sisters to operate a home for elderly women, Saint Walburga Home, in the old Kaul homestead from 1937 to 1964. When the need for extended care for patients from the hospital was made evident a facilty for that purpose was built adjacent to the hospital.

Devotion to the local community prompted the Benedictine Sisters of Elk County to enter the health care field in 1933. When the Sisters realized they were no longer able to provide sufficient Sisters to meet that need, they involved the community in discussions about the fate of the hospital. After 45 years of ministry, the hospital was turned over to a non - profit corporation on March 1, 1978. In 1994, the name was changed to Saint Marys Regional Medical Center. And when the 75th anniversary of the 1922 founding of the hospital was marked in 1997, it was simply stated "Surely without the careful stewardship of the Benedictine Sisters, there might be no hospital to celebrate today."

For additional information on the Benedictine Sisters of Elk Country, please visit their homepage by clicking here.