Sr. Cyr
Sr. Justine Cyr, the past superior general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours and past provincial of the Sisters of Bon Secours, USA, died at age 82 on Jan. 1. Her recognition of the importance of hospital collaboration served as the impetus for the formation of the Bon Secours Health System in 1983, according to her community and colleagues. Today, the Catholic health care system headquartered in Marriottsville, Md., includes 19 acute care hospitals and cares for patients in six states.
From 1973 to 1977, Sr. Cyr was the coordinator for Bon Secours Health Care Facilities. The organization was the precursor to Bon Secours Health System. She chaired the Bon Secours Health System board in 1989. For many years, Sr. Cyr worked in Bon Secours hospitals in Baltimore; Darby, Pa.; Methuen, Mass.; Grosse Pointe, Mich.; and Richmond, Va.; as a pediatric nurse, director of nursing and hospital administrator.
In 1979, she became provincial of the Sisters of Bon Secours, USA, a position she held until 1988. From 1989 until 1999, Sr. Cyr served the Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours internationally as superior general, a position she held for two terms, with five years in Rome and five in Paris after the congregation moved its headquarters to Paris.
She oversaw the restoration of the historic, ornate chapel in the Sisters of Bon Secours' motherhouse in Paris, according to information from her community.
Sr. Patricia A. Eck, CBS, congregation leader for the Sisters of Bon Secours of Paris, said, "There is not a part of us that she has not influenced. She has been a leader in the USA and internationally in health care as well as in religious life. For us, she is the epitome of the valiant woman in Proverbs, a virtuous woman, a wisdom figure, a woman of strength."
Sr. Cyr was a member of CHA’s board of trustees from 1985 to 1990.
She joined the Sisters of Bon Secours in 1952 with her final profession of vows in 1960. She earned her nursing degree from the Bon Secours School of Nursing in Baltimore in 1957 and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in 1966. She later earned a master’s degree in spiritual and pastoral services from Loyola University Maryland.
Her funeral Mass was on Jan. 6 in the chapel of the Retreat and Conference Center at Bon Secours in Marriottsville, with burial at New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore.
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