Bon Secours Sisters
The Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours is an international Roman Catholic women's religious congregation for nursing, whose declared mission is to care for those who are sick and dying. It was founded by Josephine Potel in 1824, in Paris, France. While the Congregation's stated object is to care for patients from all socio-economic groups, in some territories they only operate for-profit private hospitals. Reflecting their name, the Congregation's motto is "Good Help to Those in Need".
Initially active in France, the sisters tended the wounded during the Revolution of 1848 and the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, and the sick during the 1893 cholera epidemic in Boulogne-Sur-Mer. In 1832, at the request of the Archbishop of Boulogne, they took charge of an orphanage. Their work expanded to both other countries and other areas of service. The Congregation expanded to Ireland, England, the United States, Scotland, Chad, Peru, and Tanzania.
A separate system was formed in 1993 to coordinate the health care facilities managed by the sisters in Ireland. In 2019, Bon Secours Health System of Dublin merged with Bon Secours Mercy Health of Cincinnati, Ohio. "Together, the health systems have 60,000 employees serving more than 10.5 million people through nearly 50 hospitals, more than 50 home health agencies and senior health and housing facilities."
While the Congregation's historic motherhouse remains in Paris, its international headquarters is in Marriotsville, Maryland, United States.
In 2014, it was reported that the bodies of up to 796 children under the care of the Congregation had been disposed of in a structure built within a decommissioned sewage tank at the Tuam "Children's Home", which the Sisters of Bon Secours ran in Tuam, Ireland. Excavations in 2017 found an "underground structure divided into 20 chambers", containing the remains of children up to three years old. Examination of the remains found that they dated from the late 1930s through to the 1950s. Data from the National Archives of Ireland from 1947 showed that the death rate of children in Bon Secours during the preceding twelve months was almost twice that of some other mother and baby homes. A full forensic investigation commenced in July 2025.
History
The founder
The Congregation's founder, Josephine Potel, was born on March 14, 1799, in the small rural village of Bécordel in northern France. At the age of 22, she traveled to Paris and was moved to pity by the suffering she observed. At that time, France had been shaken by centuries of political, social, and religious upheaval — including, most recently, the French Revolution. The violence of the Revolution — particularly the Reign of Terror – had taken many lives and destroyed the fabric of French society.With poverty rampant among France's lower class, healthcare for the poor was scarce and low-quality. When people fell ill or were injured, they avoided the hospitals, which were seen as death traps and often had filthy, prison-like conditions. Care, if available at all, was usually provided by a family member with little or no experience caring for the sick. With overcrowding and a lack of sanitation, diseases spread quickly through city streets, afflicting rich and poor alike.
Potel and eleven other women formed the group that would become the Sisters of Bon Secours. They chose Potel, who had taken the religious name "Sister Marie-Joseph", as their leader for her dedication to the seemingly endless work, and her ability to encourage and guide others. Contemporary norms held that nuns were supposed to either remain in the convent or at least return by nightfall if they ventured out into the world. Consequently, when the Sisters applied for acceptance of their new Congregation, Archbishop de Quélen of Paris was skeptical. After persistent efforts by Potel, the Archbishop eventually granted the Sisters a one-year probationary period. According to their founding constitution, "...the principal aim of this pious society is the care of the sick in their own homes". The group was formally approved by Pope Pius IX in 1875. Our Lady Help of Christians is their patron.
Early days
Although its patients were expected to pay as much as they could afford, the congregation provided nursing free of charge to the poor.Word of the Sisters' work spread quickly throughout Paris and the surrounding countryside, and the Congregation were sought out by other women inspired by them to join. By the end of its first year, the Congregation had eighteen new members, bringing its number to thirty. On January 24, 1824, de Quelen accepted their vows and gave them the name of the Bon Secours Sisters of Paris. On May 6, 1826, Mother Josephine died. Three days later, on May 9, Angelique Geay was appointed Superior General, taking her predecessor's name.
Growth of the congregation's mission in France
The Sisters reached a major milestone in 1827, when the French Bourbon government legally recognized them as the first association of nursing religious individuals in the country. Following this milestone, the demand for the organization's services continued to grow. In 1829, Mere Geay established a new group of twelve sisters in Lille, and the following year the Sisters began a ministry in Boulogne. Three years later, at the Archbishop's request, the congregation took over an orphanage in Paris.As the Sisters' numbers continued to grow, they moved in 1833 into a larger home in Paris. Meanwhile, France continued to be subject to epidemics, wars, and social upheaval. After the King of France was exiled during the Revolution of 1848, the former King's palace became a hospital where the Sisters cared for the wounded; they also tended to the injured on the streets of Paris. Similarly, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the Sisters cared for the wounded and dying on the battlefield and brought them into their convents to convalesce. Although the sisters had been requested to take over care for the sick during the 1893 cholera epidemic in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, the congregation subsequently became a target of anti-clerical governments during the early 20th century.
Europe
In addition to extending their work around France, the Sisters of Bon Secours began to expand beyond the country's borders due to international demand for their services. In 1861, Dublin, Ireland became the Sisters' first foreign foundation. From their original convent on Granville Street, they provided visiting nurse services. Nine years later, the congregation was invited to establish themselves in London. The Sisters expanded to Scotland in 1948, opening a home nursing service, and also opening a home for the elderly in Glasgow. The independent Bon Secours Health System, one of largest hospital groups in Ireland, developed from the initial Bon Secours hospitals.It later merged with Bon Secours Mercy Health of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 2015, the for-profit Bon Secours Health System had about 2,700 staff who worked with 350 medical consultants and saw more than 200,000 patients, making €2.5 million in profit after paying €3 million to the order in rent.
North America
The Sisters of Bon Secours' arrival in America came about when an American couple, the Whedbys, were on their wedding trip in Paris and the bride fell ill. An English-speaking Bon Secours Sister nursed her back to health, and the couple was impressed with the care she provided. Upon returning to the States, the couple spoke to some prominent area physicians, who contacted Archbishop Gibbons of Baltimore to request that the Sisters be asked to practice their ministry in the United States. Approving of the request, while on his way to Rome to become a cardinal, Archbishop Gibbons stopped in Paris to ask the Sisters if they would be willing to provide their home care services in Baltimore. In 1881, three Sisters sailed to the United States, and in the following year they opened a convent in Baltimore on the site of the present Grace Medical Center. The Bon Secours established the first day care facility in Baltimore in 1907 to help working mothers. They came to Washington, D.C., in 1905 to provide healthcare during a typhoid epidemic. Their assistance was particularly beneficial during a Spanish flu outbreak after World War I.In 1916, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Edmond Francis Prendergast, established Saint Edmond's Home to meet the needs of children affected by the polio epidemic, and asked the Bon Secours Sisters in Connecticut to staff it.
As hospitals became the preferred place of treatment, the Sisters broadened where they cared for the sick and dying. Soon the Sisters were building their own health care facilities.
In 1958 the Congregation of Bon Secours in the United States became a separate Province. As the twentieth century progressed, the sisters responded to people's changing needs, opening convalescent homes, running clinics and mobile health care vans, caring for the sick in rural areas and those struggling with addictions in inner cities. Bon Secours Health System was established in 1983 to coordinate the administration and management of the various healthcare facilities. The congregation hosts a Retreat & Conference Center in Marriottsville, Maryland.