Phoenix’s first Catholic hospital is gearing up for their 130th anniversary on March 19th, the Feast of St. Joseph.
For well over a century, St. Joseph’s Hospital in downtown Phoenix has put into practice Christ’s mandate to welcome the poor and sick as Himself. The first St. Joseph’s sanitarium was founded in 1895 but the story of the hospital’s beginnings started three years prior. In 1892, Bishop Peter Bourgade invited the Sisters of Mercy to open Sacred Heart Academy, which would eventually become St. Mary’s High School.
Sr. Margaret Mary McBride began her service at St. Joseph’s in the 1970’s and served intermittently at the hospital for 37 years. Recently retired in Nov. 2024, she described the beginnings of the Sisters of Mercy’s work.
“Our sisters used to visit the sick after school each day,” Sr. McBride recounted. “They went out and saw that people were dying in the streets [of tuberculosis and smallpox].”
Prayerfully considering their mission and God’s invitation, they discerned that their assistance was more immediately needed to care for the sick. Initially, they set up tents outside the city limits— north of Phoenix in the Sunny Slope area — where they provided shelter to patients. Committed to their charism of hospitality and not wanting anyone to die alone or in pain, the sisters immersed themselves in their work.
“We decided to rent a cottage on Fourth St. and Polk,” Sr. McBride continued. “It had 12 beds and we took some of the sickest patients and brought them to our sanitarium. We opened on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19th [1895], and he became the patron of the hospital.”
Over the next 40 years Saint Joseph’s faced trials coupled with accomplishments and advancements.
“The gentleman that owned the property that we were renting went to court to get the sisters evicted,” Sr. McBride explained. “He saw his property value going down because we were taking care of sick people.”
At the conclusion of the trial, the judge sided in the sisters’ favor. He told the owner that the city was grateful for the sisters’ work in containing the epidemic and suggested that the gentleman sell his property to them for a reasonable rate. The owner accepted the proposal, allowing the sisters to expand the sanitarium into a 24-room facility.
In 1910 the Sisters of Mercy opened Arizona’s first nursing school with the intention of training women in the Phoenix area to help them in their mission of caring for the sick. Among the nurses that came to help the sisters in the establishment of the hospital was Senator Barry Goldwater’s mother. The senator himself underwent triple-bypass heart surgery at St. Joseph’s in 1982.
Then, in 1917, a fire wreaked havoc on the hospital, destroying it completely. The sisters worked hard to re-build and, only 90 days after the fire, the hospital re-opened.
By the mid 1940’s the population of Phoenix had increased significantly and a larger facility was needed. The sisters decided to purchase 10 acres of an old dairy farm north of the city on Third Ave. and Thomas Rd. Criticized for the location, which was north of the city and thought to be too far of a distance to travel, the sisters were not disappointed in following their intuition.
A fundraising campaign began in Nov. of 1947 for the building of the new hospital. In July 1953 the doors of St. Joseph’s opened once again to the sick and poor.
Make-a-Wish
Notable among the events of the next 50 years was the inspiration for the Make-a-Wish Foundation in 1980. This took place on the pediatric unit of St. Joseph’s which, at that time, was overseen by Sr. Madonna Marie Bolton.
“We had a child that was dying of leukemia,” Sr. McBride explained. “He wanted to be a police officer…so the sisters worked with community members…he got a uniform and a special bike designed for him and spent the day with the highway patrol.”
The 7-year-old boy, whose name was Christopher Greicius, became the first child to receive his “wish come true.” Members of the Phoenix community continued this tradition and to this day the national headquarters are located on Highland Ave. in Phoenix.
Achievements and High-Level Care
St. Joseph’s has developed a reputation for world-leading excellence in patient care. In 1984, the first heart transplant in Arizona was successfully performed at the hospital. Only one year prior, in 1983, Dr. Ted Detrich performed an open-heart surgery that was broadcast live on PBS.
“The sisters were in prayer the whole time for the man to do well,” Sr. McBride recalled. “He came through surgery beautifully and we received a lot of positive feedback.”
St. Joseph’s was also Arizona’s first Level One Trauma Center. Their Nursery Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is considered the most excellent in the entire Southwest region. St. Joseph’s was also the first in the Phoenix area to perform lung transplants at their Norton Thoracic Institute — today considered one of the nation’s leading lung transplant centers. Additionally, the Barrow Neurological Institute is now a world leader in providing neurological and neurosurgical care.
Pope St. John Paul II Visits St. Joseph’s
The first stop of Pope St. John Paul II during his 1987 trip to Phoenix was at St. Joseph’sHospital. On Sept. 14th, the pope arrived at St. Joseph’s to the sound of the staff serenading him with a traditional Polish song, “Sto lat, Sto lat,” which wished him good health and a long life. He then spoke to an audience of 6,000 patients, staff and board members.
“It is difficult to express the emotion created by this fond meeting — the suffering, especially the suffering of children,” the pope said. “I am grateful to all of you — the people, women and men who work in this community. It is a beautiful work, an evangelical mission, to heal the suffering and the sick.”
He visited the patients, spending more than his prearranged time in the pediatric ward. Among the children he spent time with were Brooke Johnson, born three months premature at only 1 pound, 5 ounces and Johnny Adrian, a terminally ill 15-year-old, suffering from a brain tumor that had taken away his vision and hearing.
Known for his love of children, the pope commented, “My wish to all of you who take part here is to feel the inspiration of the most Holy Family — Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” He prayed that St. Joseph, who protected the Holy Family, would protect and heal the patients of St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Mission Vision and Values
To this day, St. Joseph’s continues to grow their services while remaining true to the Sisters of Mercy’s original mission.
Mario Valadez is the vice president for Mission Integration for St. Joseph’s and Dignity Health. His role is to make sure that Catholic identity is maintained according to St. Joseph’s mission, vision, and values.
“We do this through formation,” Valadez explained. “We teach Catholic Social Teaching to our executives and directors… to make sure that our leaders are able to make decisions in line with Catholic thought.”
Ethical and religious directives are shared with staff at new employee orientation and continued education takes place throughout employment.
“Mercy Affiliates” are chosen from among the 5,000 hospital employees. They undergo extensive training to become ambassadors for the Sisters of Mercy’s mission. They bring this mission out into the hospital units, leading reflections at meetings and — with hospital chaplains — blessing the hands of staff.
Integral to the mission is “charity care for the poor.”
“There are some people who do not have access to care or that do not have the means to pay. There is a committee before which these cases are brought. This has been the case ever since the hospital opened in 1895,” Valadez said.
“Charity care has been the foundation for the Sisters of Mercy since their beginnings in Dublin, Ireland. Caring for the poor and vulnerable has always been their heartbeat… We have carried this heartbeat all the way to 2025 and [will carry it] into the future.”
The staff is celebrating their 130th anniversary with a week-long celebration of festivities, including Mass with Bishop John Dolan in St. Joseph’s Chapel.
Join us next month for a new episode of TILMA, a monthly podcast where Bishop Dolan will sit down for a conversation with Dr. Doug Ross, the new president of Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. All episodes of TILMA can be found on the Diocese of Phoenix’s Facebook and YouTube channels.
