Video courtesy of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady sisters gather in 1923 on an island on the grounds of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium. The island with a statue of Our Lady was on Capitol Lake in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The FMOL Sisters often reflected and prayed on the island.
Our Lady of the Lake of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, kicked off a yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary with a November Mass and reception. It also tied its annual living nativity in early December to its anniversary, has plans to link a community investment announcement to the centennial and is curating team member stories to mark the occasion.
Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca celebrated the Mass. Leaders and staff of Our Lady of the Lake and its parent Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System attended, along with members of the system's founding congregation the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady.
Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium in Baton Rouge on May 12, 1924, during a National Hospital Day celebration. The event included a performance by the Louisiana State University Cadets and band. Our Lady of the Lake's relationship with LSU began in the first months after the sanitarium's opening.
Our Lady of the Lake traces its U.S. origins to 1911, when six FMOL sisters arrived in the country from France to further the healing mission of Jesus.
In 1945 a specialized pediatric ward was opened at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge to separate pediatric patients from adult patients. The unit was led by Sr. Julie O'Donovan, who was considered a "guardian angel" by parents.
The sisters first established the St. Francis Sanitarium in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1913. In 1921, upon learning that Baton Rouge needed a hospital, the FMOL congregation's Mother de Bethanie Crowley took a driving tour of that small river town of 22,000 with Msgr. Francis Leon Gassler of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Baton Rouge. It is said that when they neared the former site of Louisiana State University in what is now downtown Baton Rouge, Mother de Bethanie directed them to stop. Our Lady of the Lake recounted in a press release that Msgr. Gassler "was aghast as Mother de Bethanie purposefully picked her way through a mule yard toward a briar patch at the back of the property." The site she scoped out was a de facto dump.
In 1945 a specialized pediatric ward was opened at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge to separate pediatric patients from adult patients. The unit was led by Sr. Julie O'Donovan, who was considered a "guardian angel" by parents.
A hospital on the site firmly in mind, she swiftly formed an ecumenical committee to amass community support for a hospital. The community raised $30,000 toward construction of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium, which opened in November 1923. It has since moved to a different location.
Today the Our Lady of the Lake network includes Louisiana's largest medical center, the 900-bed Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center; a 99-bed Children's Hospital; a 78-bed hospital in Gonzales, Louisiana; and other locations. The Our Lady of the Lake network employs more than 7,500.
Images from the kickoff Mass, historical photos and a video on Our Lady of the Lake's heritage are available at fmolhs.org/lake-100.