St. Elizabeth Health Center of Youngstown, Ohio, is marking its centennial with a year of celebration that will conclude in December.
The festivities began with a reception and Mass around Christmastime and are continuing this year with an art contest for students, a gala, a picnic, an open house and a presentation on health care by CHA President and Chief Executive Officer Sr. Carol Keehan, DC. The celebration will wrap up with an ecumenical prayer service.
St. Elizabeth also is updating and rereleasing a historical book it created for its 75th anniversary.
St. Elizabeth began at the prompting of Youngstown clergy and community members, who asked the Cleveland bishop to establish a Catholic hospital in the town. That bishop agreed but said the Youngstown community would need to find a way to fund it. Part of the first fund-raising campaign for the hospital was an "Aviation Day" at which donors could glimpse a new invention, the airplane. Bad weather and other mishaps curtailed the event, but money flowed in nonetheless.
The Cleveland bishop asked an order of Humility of Mary sisters to run St. Elizabeth, and they accepted the invitation. Three homes were refurbished for use as a hospital, sisters' residence and employee housing; and the small campus welcomed its first patient in December 1911.
Throughout a century of growth and change, the facility has relied heavily upon community funds. Today, St. Elizabeth is a tertiary referral hospital that is part of the three-hospital Humility of Mary Health Partners. That system is part of Catholic Health Partners of Cincinnati.