Our History
In 1858, a group of Sisters of Charity, led by Mother Xavier Ross, responded to the call of Bishop John Baptiste Miege, S. J., to expand the ministry of healthcare and education in the Kansas Territory. They traveled to the area and began plans to build a hospital. In 1864, before Saint John Hospital was finished and ready for occupancy, a lumber wagon deposited at the door a family of poor refugees from Alabama "fleeing before Sherman's army and without means of starting life anew." The Sisters of Charity took them in, fed and clothed them and gave them a fresh start.
Such was the unceremonious opening, on March 15, 1864, of the first private hospital in the State of Kansas. The hospital opened under the direction of Sister Joanna Bruner, the first trained nurse in the state and surely the first woman in the Western territory to be administrator of a hospital. Sister Joanna Bruner also taught nursing care to other sisters.
Since that time, professional excellence, leadership, and a readiness to undertake whatever needed doing have been hallmarks of the SCL community.
Today, Saint John Hospital is an affiliate of Providence Medical Center and both are a part of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System and are accredited by the Joint Commission On Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
View an Illustrated History of SCLHS.
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