In this Issue:

St. Joseph's Hospital

Bona Pride Day

Cyclone Freddy

Holy Name Province's Francis Medal

"Pathway to Peace & Inner Freedom:

Reflections on the Twelve Steps"

Mission Society Easter Cards

St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Florida, has been named one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals™ according to an independent quality analysis provided by PINC AI™ and reported by Fortune magazine. This is the fifth time and the third consecutive year St. Joseph’s has made this prestigious list. 

St. Joseph’s Hospital, now part of BayCare Health System and its 16 hospitals, was founded October 1, 1934, by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany. The Sisters still play important roles within the hospital and the system.

To select top performers, an objective, independent, quantitative research analysis was performed using publicly available data measuring cardiac care in the United States. 

“At St. Joseph’s Hospital, we continually pursue clinical excellence provided by compassionate caregivers,” said Kimberly Guy, co-chief operating officer of BayCare. 

St. Joseph’s Hospital nationally renowned Heart and Vascular Institute performs more than 500 open-heart surgeries, 600 interventional procedures, 900 diagnostic services and 11,500 diagnostic tests each year. 

You can read the complete news release here: https://www.baycare.org/newsroom/2023/march/sjh-50-top-cardiovascular-hospital

March 14 was Bona Pride Day and the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany not only joined in on the social media celebration, they stole the show.

About 60 sisters from the Motherhouse in Allegany and from Jamaica, as well as members of the Congregational Office staff, participated by posing for pictures to show how proud they are to be alumnae.

Lindsay Retchless, St. Bonaventure’s Director of Alumni Engagement, said, “Receiving the sisters’ Bona Pride photo collages was heartwarming. The sisters are an essential part of the Bona Family and seeing them share their Bona pride made the day extra special!”

Not all alumnae sisters were able to join in for various reasons, but they’re already looking forward to 2024.

“Participating in Bona Pride Day 2023 was a last-minute idea,” said FSA Human Resource Manager Kristen Luther. “Next year we’ll invite more sisters to show their Bona pride.”

And, this story is not quite finished yet. We’ll pass along the next chapter in our next newsletter.

Bona Pride Day was a lead-in to the fundraising campaign, Bona Giving Day which raised more than $465,000.

Cyclone Freddy has broken the record for the longest-lasting tropical cyclone while leaving death and destruction in its wake in eastern Africa. Freddy made landfall in Mozambique on February 24 and again on March 11. At least 165 deaths have been recorded. The Mozambique government said the number of people affected by the second landfall has risen to more than 886,000. More than 100,000 houses have been destroyed and 348,000 hectares of land affected.

Sister Liliane Costa is one of the Sisters serving in Mozambique. She sent us her account of the devastation caused by the deadly storm.

After more than 72 hours of uninterrupted heavy rains and terrifying winds, Cyclone Freddy left his marks not only on the structures of the houses or on the roads and bridges. His marks are embedded in the history of the people.

Fields of crops are submerged, and the people harvest what can be harvested, “but a lot has been lost in the midst of the storm.”

She said now there are signs of hunger because the vast majority of the population is peasants who live off their crops.

“There are the marks of exploitation, where products have their prices exorbitantly increased, the poor can't buy, if you don't buy you don't eat. And don't tell me the economy needs to rotate, when what we need is compassion,” she said.

She said there are also signs of cholera, which “kills and kills fast. … Children, adults and whoever else is susceptible to it.” (As of March 21, about 12,000 people in eight provinces had been affected by cholera, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.)

However, Sr. Liliane said while walking around the village to show solidarity she saw a lot of destruction but also saw “open smiles, receptivity, hospitality, generosity, brotherhood and lots of work. 

“And so, I keep wondering: What's the secret of these people? Where is so much resistance stored? How to not be discouraged by chaos?

“And the answer is simple: We can lose everything, but we should never lose faith. It's faith that makes us rebuild; it's faith that causes us to believe that we'll make it, that we'll be able to stand, even with our forces diminished. It's faith that makes us strong. (Faith) is the one who makes us say like Saint Paul, "For when I am weak, I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10). 

“And with faith we will rebuild, again, and again, and again...”

Sr. Patricia Shirley, OSF, and Sr. Mary McNally, OSF, each received the Holy Name Province's Francis Medal on Sunday, March 19, 2023. The medal recognizes individuals who have displayed an uncommon contribution to the advancement of the ideals and values of St. Francis of Assisi. 

Sr. Pat humbly said she did “very little” to earn the medal while explaining how she helped make COVID vaccines available for the sisters and the friars at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“They’re my brothers,” she said. “I did for them what I would do for any of my brothers. That’s part of who we all are.”

She went on to talk about the bond shared between the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and the friars of Holy Name Province, which goes back 164 years to the founding of FSA just a year after St. Bonaventure’s College was founded.

While presenting the medals, Father Anthony Carrozzo, OFM, former Provincial Minister of Holy Name Province, stressed that although medals were given out to only two sisters, those women are the models for all Franciscan sisters.

Holy Name Province will have much more on this story in their next newsletter, and we’ll pass that along here.

To purchase a copy at $5.00 each, please send a check payable to

“Franciscan Sisters of Allegany” and mail to:

Franciscan Sisters of Allegany; Attn: Claire Majot; P.O. Box W, St Bonaventure, NY 14778.

Or if you are visiting the St. Elizabeth Motherhouse cash can be accepted.

Send your special prayer blessings to friends or loved ones this Easter with Mass enrollment cards from St. Elizabeth Mission Society. As members of the Mission Society, their intentions will be remembered at Easter Sunday Mass and in other Masses celebrated throughout the Easter season in the Motherhouse Chapel. They will also share in the prayers and good works of our Sisters in Bolivia, Brazil, Jamaica, Mozambique and the United States. 

As a sponsored ministry of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, the St. Elizabeth Mission Society shares in its spiritual aims, one of which is to advance the awareness of God's love. Donations given for the cards are used to support the ministries of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany who work to educate, heal, clothe, and feed those who are experiencing poverty in Bolivia, Brazil, Jamaica, Mozambique and the United States.

Jubilee & Easter cards, as well as various other enrollment cards, can be ordered online at https://www.franciscanhope.org/shop/ or you can call the Mission Society office at (716) 373-1130 or e-mail the staff at StEliz.Office.Manager@FSAllegany.org for more information about ordering the enrollment cards. Jubilee & Easter cards will also be available in the Mission Society office.