With sadness at what she called a “family separation,” Little Sisters of the Poor’s Mother Julie Marie Horseman announced her congregation’s decision to seek a buyer for their St. Paul Holy Family Residence, ending more than 140 years of caring for the elderly poor in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The announcement came during an Oct. 23 informational meeting at the home located outside downtown St. Paul for staff, residents and family members, lay associates and volunteers. Many were surprised and saddened.
The St. Paul home offers a continuum of nursing care and 27 independent apartments, according to the residence website. The home is part of the sisters’ strategic plan to strengthen their ministry. The plan also involves withdrawing from several other homes in the United States and other countries, Mother Julie said.
“We want to build a family in our homes, but that means we feel the separation of family,” Mother Julie said to an overflow crowd in the home’s auditorium. “We have to move … I just want to say thank you once again and we’re here with you and we appreciate your support.”
With a search underway for a new provider that the sisters hope will be Catholic and based in the Twin Cities, Mother Julie said the community will maintain a presence at the home through the transition, which they hope will cause minimal disruption for residents and employees.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda also expressed sadness in a statement after the sisters’ announcement, offering prayers to the sisters, residents and staff during the transition. The archbishop said he hopes that another Catholic organization will continue the sisters’ work in the archdiocese.
The Little Sisters of the Poor “have been an important part of this local Church for more than 140 years and their Christ-like witness and example will be greatly missed,” the archbishop said. “I have always loved my visits to the Holy Family Residence and am grateful that we have been blessed by their presence. Their sacrifices and tireless commitment to service, as well.”
The sisters have contracted with Zielinski Companies of Fenton, Missouri, to help facilitate the sale and transition. The company helps religious communities, ministries and other nonprofits with business needs, according to its website.
Other recent management changes at the St. Paul home have included welcoming a new administrator, Ron Donacik.
Greg Zielinski, executive director of Zielinski Companies, said at the meeting that the firm will work to help meet the goal of a smooth transition to a new provider.
The sisters’ decision to withdraw from their St. Paul home followed their congregation’s 2022 General Chapter gathering in France and a strategic plan to strengthen their ministry and the quality of their religious and community life, Mother Julie said in a news release.
Through prayer and study, the Little Sisters recognized the need to withdraw from some of their homes while dedicating resources to necessary upgrades and reconstruction projects in others, she said.
One reason the sisters have chosen to withdraw from the St. Paul home is the difficulty they’ve have had in maintaining consistent staffing in the Twin Cities, Mother Julie said during the meeting.
The congregation lists on its website 19 U.S. residences and 10 former residences and its presence in 30 other countries.
Some residents at the meeting asked about transferring from St. Paul to one of the congregation’s other homes. Mother Julie said the sisters would do their best to accommodate them.
The Little Sisters’ first home in the archdiocese was established after the arrival of six sisters in St. Paul in 1883 at the request of then-Bishop Thomas Grace and Coadjutor Bishop John Ireland.
The sisters lacked funds but wanted to help the elderly poor as their founder, St. Jeanne Jugan, had done when she founded the ministry 44 years earlier in Saint-Servan, France. St. Jeanne began by offering her own bed to a blind, paralyzed widow.
The sisters opened their first Minnesota home in an old school building in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood, which they purchased from the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Soon they were caring for 20 mostly poor, immigrant residents. The sisters supported the home primarily by begging for food and clothing contributions, sometimes traveling long distances by horse and wagon.
As the need for their care grew, the sisters had a larger St. Paul home built in 1889 and established a second home in Northeast Minneapolis. The two homes were consolidated with the construction of the current home in 1977, located at 330 Exchange Street South.
Staff and contract employees at the Holy Family Residence had mixed feelings about the announcement.
“I’m really hurt and upset,” said Krissy Klink, who has worked at the home for almost 20 years. “It’s like losing family. The sisters are like family to me. It’s not just a job, it’s everything. It’s going to be hard through the transition. I’m not planning on leaving, but I’m still scared about what (may happen). With the new people, will I still have a job?”
Another employee shared at the meeting that she feels something will be lost at the home when the sisters leave. “We can work anywhere,” she said. “We can stay, we can go. …Because every time I come here you have church, you have friends. Something is important.”
Acknowledging the range of emotions the announcement raised, Zielinski assured those at the informational meeting that the sisters would leave at the appropriate time –– and look for a Catholic entity as a buyer.
“We’re not going to turn the lights out tonight and tomorrow you turn the lights back on and it’s all different. … It is absolutely mission related.”
