Mercy Medical Center wrapped up the Heritage Week celebration with a colleague barbeque and a cornhole tournament on July 19, the 174th birthday of Catherine Horan, who founded the Sisters of Providence of Holyoke and took the name Mother Mary of Providence. Earlier in the week, colleagues were invited to attend a special Mass celebrated by the Most Reverend William Byrne, Bishop of Springfield. A commissioning ceremony was held following the Mass and colleagues were asked to renew their commitment to their patients and the community. Colleagues also gathered around the Mercy Peace Pole for the blessing of the Brightside Bell. The bell was donated in 2004 when Brightside for Families and Children had a school for children in its residential program. With the relocation of Brightside to the Mercy campus, the bell has also been installed outside the hospital.
Mercy colleagues gather for a barbeque lunch.
Heritage Week is an annual celebration that invites colleagues to pay tribute to members of the Sisters of Providence congregation for creating and sponsoring the health ministry. In 1873, four Sisters of Providence from Canada established a mission in Holyoke, leaving behind their familiar surroundings for western Massachusetts. Within one week of arrival, they established the House of Providence and accepted the first orphan, planting the seeds for the congregation’s first ministry that later became known as Brightside for Families and Children.
“Although many elements of our health ministry have changed over the years, we are proud to carry on the healing legacy that was first extended by those four Sisters of Providence,” said Robert Roose, M.D., M.P.H., President, Mercy Medical Center and Johnson Memorial Hospital. “Our celebration of Heritage Week provides an opportunity to not only reflect on the past, but also look toward the future and embrace our role as caretakers of the Sisters’ vision and values.”