150 years for Holy Cross Hospital Salt Lake City

Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

SALT LAKE CITY — Two sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Cross came to Utah 150 years ago, and immediately set to work. Within a few months of their arrival they established a school and a hospital in Salt Lake City. In 1901 they established the Holy Cross School of Nursing, which operated until 1970.  The hospital continues to operate, although the Holy Cross sisters sold it in 1994. It operated as Salt Lake Regional Hospital until 2023, when it was purchased by CommonSpirit Health, the largest Catholic hospital system in the country. At that time the name was changed to CommonSpirit Holy Cross Hospital Salt Lake.

On Oct. 23, the health care legacy of the Holy Cross sisters in Utah was honored with a celebration that began with Mass at the hospital, then continued with a tour of the historic chapel and a luncheon that included a video highlighting the sisters’ ministries, and comments by various dignitaries.

In his comments at the Mass, Father John Evans, vicar general, said, “We gather as people of faith, as people who care about the people we serve. God’s people. All people.”

Over their 150 years in Utah, more than 1,400 Sisters of the Holy Cross ministered here, Fr. Evans said. He related some of their struggles, and added, “So whatever challenges we have, I hope that we can draw inspiration from these sisters and … the good work that they did. The reason they did it is because they believed in the mission of Christ; they believed it was worth the sacrifice that they made in their life to go so that others would have greater life – and I mean that in every sense of the word: greater life.”

The invocation at the luncheon was given by Elder Sean Collins, Area Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

During her comments at the luncheon, Christine McSweeney, president of the Holy Cross hospitals in Jordan Valley and West Valley, mentioned the Holy Cross sisters who ministered to people with AIDS in the mid 1980s, when “AIDS patients in Utah had nowhere to go for care,” she said. “In some ways, they were a modern-day colony of lepers.”

Holy Cross Hospital established a program to care for AIDS patients, and for a time it was the only facility to care for them, she said, noting that the five nuns who were involved in this program were highlighted in a documentary called “Quiet Heroes.”

“At CommonSpirit, we stand on the shoulders of these quiet heroes,” McSweeney said. 

Sarah Hill, chief mission integration officer of CommonSpirit Health Utah Market, said the organization intentionally renamed their five Utah facilities after the Holy Cross sisters because “as a faith-based hospital system, we are very passionate about continuing on that legacy that was already present here.”

Although CommonSpirit and the Congregation of the Holy Cross are two distinct organizations, “we share the same values and very complementary missions,” Hill said.

At the close of the celebration, Jeremy Bradshaw, president of CommonSpirit Health Utah Market, unveiled a painted glass window that reflects the style of those already in the historic chapel. The new window shows scenes reflecting the hospital’s history, and it will hang in the building’s entrance “as a reminder to the legacy of the sisters and our commitment to CommonSpirit to carry that tradition forward as we serve the great residents of Utah,” Bradshaw said. 

Fr. Evans blessed the window and said that “the image of care given to a sick person reflects not only the hope for their  recovery but the dedication and professionalism of nurses, doctors, technicians and indeed all the staff required to make a hospital run.”