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"Charity", he said, "is an essential in the work of
this kind, and it is an unwritten law in the order that no one,
no matter how poor or afflicted, will be turned away as long as there
is a room or a bed vacant."
-- Reverend James A. Griffin
Bishop of Springfield in Illinois
Address to the Congregation
November 12, 1925
The mission activity of the American Province of the Hospital Sisters began
in 1925 when five of our Sisters arrived in Tsinan, China. For 50 years,
the American Congregation was blessed in establishing health care facilities
in the United States. In gratitude for this blessing, the order responded
to a request to staff a mission hospital in China. In September, Sisters
sailed to China to begin the first International missionary work of the
American Province. In 1948, all non-Chinese Sisters were asked to leave
China. The American Sisters along with Chinese Novices returned to the United
States. The hospital staffed by the Sisters is now in the hands of the Chinese
government.
Haiti
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and the city of Jeremie,
a mountainous isolated city in the southwest section, has many serious
health conditions.
Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, an orthodontist from Connecticut, first visited Haiti
in 1982. He extracted teeth in alleyways and schoolrooms in the slums
of Port-au-Prince. His visits led him to establish the HAITIAN HEALTH FOUNDATION and the SAVE-A-FAMILY program. The "Clinic of the People of God"
was dedicated on December 8, 1988.
For more information on the HAITIAN HEALTH FOUNDATION please contact:
In September of 1989, Sister MaryAnn Berard and Sister Joan Jordan volunteered
to serve at the clinic. Sister Mary Immaculate Creedon has served many
years. A number of Sisters and laity have volunteered services through
a Springfield Diocesan program "Haitian Partnership".
Tanzania
San Damiano Mission Kemondo
 In the summer of 1998 Reverend Father Thomas Tibainuguka from Bukoba
Diocese, Tanzania visited Springfield, Illinois, and met several of the
Sisters of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. The Sisters discussed
their vision and dreams of missionary work in Africa with him. Father
Thomas secured a meeting with the Reverend Bishop Nestor Timanywa of the
Bukoba Diocese. In March of 1999, the first delegation of Sisters toured
the Bukoba diocese.
When they reached Kemondo they found a worn San Damiano crucifix hanging
over the altar of the simple church. It touched them to realize that other
Franciscans had served the people of Kemondo. That Spring Sister Anne
Carlino and Stefanie Koester, a lay associate from Germany, were commissioned
as missionaries to Tanzania. Sister Anne and Stefanie arrived there on
July 28 1999.
Building of a convent and mission house began in January of 2000. On
May 13, 2000, a village feast was held and Bishop Nestor and the people
officially welcomed the missionaries to Kemondo.
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