---

Description

---

About us
St Josephs Hospital in downtown St Paul is proud to hold the distinction as Minnesotas first hospital It was founded by the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet in 1853 in response to a cholera epidemic that was sweeping St Paul

Although much has changed in health care since the hospitals early days the practice of providing high quality compassionate care remains constant From technology to education family support and spirituality to community outreach our commitment ensures youll always receive high quality compassionate care

---

History

---

St Josephs a Historical Timeline
1836 Mother St John Forbonne dispatches the first group of sisters to
America After a 49day sea voyage the sisters settle in the village of
Carondelet Missouri just outside St Louis

1841 Father Lucien Galtier builds a log cabin chapel in the pioneer
village that would become St Paul He describes the chapel as quota poor log
church that would well remind one of the stable at Bethlehemquot

quotThe rude chapel 25 feet in length 18 feet in width and 10 feet high had
two windows one on each side and faced the river Expenditures in labor
value did not exceed 75quot

1851 Bishop Joseph Cretin the first bishop of the Minnesota Territory
created in 1849 arrives in St Paul on July 2

After an appeal from Bishop Cretin four Sisters of St Joseph volunteer to
travel up the Mississippi from Missouri to teach the children of St Pauls
settlers and Indians These pioneering women were Mother St John Fournier
Sister Francis Joseph Ivory Sister Philomena Vilaine and Sister Scholastica
Vasques

On November 10 just one week after the sisters arrive the log cabin
becomes a school to its first students

1852 Cholera a highly contagious disease caused by bacteria in the
Mississippi River begins to infect the residents of St Paul

Recognizing the communitys need Bishop Cretin donates his family
inheritance of 10000 francs to build a hospital Two men step forward to
help Henry Rice a prominent Protestant layman offers a plot of land and
White Cloud an Ojibwe Indian chief donates lumber

1853 The cholera outbreak reaches epidemic proportions With the new
hospital still under construction the four sisterteachers become sister
nurses overnight transforming the log cabin school into the towns first
hospital St Josephs Hospital is born

1854 On September 20 Bishop Cretin blesses the new 3 12story stone
hospital located on the same ground where the presentday St Josephs
still stands