History of St. Cloud Hospital - St. Benedict's Hospital

St. Benedict's Hospital

In 1852, several Catholic nuns of the Order of St. Benedict immigrated to America from a convent in Eichstätt, Germany. It was their intention to provide education to pioneer towns in Pennsylvania. In 1857, some of these sisters arrived in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and in 1863, they moved to St. Joseph and established St. Benedict's Monastery.

Being educators, the sisters had no experience in health care. However, Dr. A.C. Lamothe Ramsay persuaded the sisters that the growing St. Cloud community needed a hospital. After reflecting on the Rule's instruction of providing for the sick, the sisters accepted the challenge. They bought a building on Ninth Avenue North, and with modifications, opened it as St. Benedict's Hospital on February 25, 1886.

Since hospitals on the frontier were looked upon as places for dying, not healing, the hospital almost closed due to a lack of patients. However, according to tradition, the sisters decided to pray for nine successive days asking for a sign about the future of the hospital. On the fifth day, August 14, 1886, the Sauk Rapids Cyclone struck St. Cloud and neighboring Sauk Rapids. Although all the buildings in the area were demolished, the hospital remained untouched. It became the center of the rescue effort for the hundreds who were dying or injured. The care that the sisters gave convinced residents that the hospital could be a place for healing.

Admissions began to increase and soon thirteen area doctors were sending patients to St. Benedict's Hospital. In 1888, the sisters began advertising "Hospital Admission" tickets, a predecessor to modern-day health insurance. For $10 a year, purchasers were entitled to treatment, subsistence, and nursing care in the hospital, unless their injury or illness resulted from intoxication or fighting.