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ALTON - The Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George will mark the convent’s 100th anniversary with a Mass and blessing.
Sister Beata Ziegler and Sister Anastasia Maher shared more about the convent’s history in the United States and their collaboration with OSF St. Anthony’s. They are excited to celebrate the 100th anniversary later this week. They also have an open house to be scheduled later this fall.
“This is the jubilee year of hope,” said Sister Beata Ziegler. “Our jubilee corresponds with hope. I think, when we look at Jesus’s sacrifice and our participation in it, it is hope for the world. Our world is in desperate need of goodness and of really being able to understand their dignity and worth, and that is something, through our healthcare apostolate, I believe we can really give.”
On April 22, 2025, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will perform an Anniversary Mass at 11 a.m. at the OSF St. Anthony’s Chapel. Invited guests will be in attendance, including OSF St. Anthony’s leadership and former OSF employees. The morning will conclude with a blessing of the facility and lunch.
The sisters explained that on April 1, 1925, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George arrived in St. Louis from Germany. They started work at a boys’ home, but these sisters were trained as nurses and “it was their dream” to open a hospital, Sister Anastasia Maher explained.
A German social worker told the sisters that the Nazareth Home in Alton was available, and with donations, they were able to purchase the home and rename it St. Anthony’s Infirmary. In the 1950s, it became “a real hospital.”
Today, the sisters work in a variety of roles at OSF St. Anthony’s and in other healthcare facilities within the OSF network. One sister works as a pharmacist in Rockford, while another is a biomedical engineer in Peoria.
Sister Anastasia Maher said the decision to join the OSF network was a major opportunity for St. Anthony’s. The sisters are pleased to be a part of the OSF system and partner with the 26,000 “mission partners” within the system.
“It has been life-saving, really. We joined the OSF system in 2014, and before that, any small hospital was struggling,” Sister Anastasia Maher said. “Joining the system, it just gave us such a wide variety of talent. We were free to tap into all of the knowledge and all of the skills all throughout the system…It gave us a reach much further than what we had ourselves.”
Joining the OSF network has also allowed St. Anthony’s to increase their services for Riverbend residents. The sisters said they recently installed a new MRI machine, and they’re in the process of replacing their CAT scan machine at the hospital.
St. Anthony’s also has many “strategic partnerships” with hospitals and healthcare facilities across Illinois and Missouri. The sisters explained that the goal is to provide healthcare within the Riverbend community, but they utilize these partnerships to provide quality care no matter what your needs are.
“It is about keeping care close to home,” Sister Beata Ziegler added. “People deserve that as much as we can provide it.”
For more information about OSF St. Anthony’s Hospital, visit their official webpage. To learn more about the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George, visit their official website at AltonFranciscans.org.
