Members of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity have been on the staff of the Genesis HealthCare System in Zanesville and its predecessors for 121 years. Serving at the hospital today are (from left): Sister Maureen Anne Shepard, OSF; Sister Bernadette Selinsky, OSF; and Sister Kay Warning, OSF.                              Photo courtesy Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity

Answering God's Call
Since 1900, Franciscan sisters have tended to sick in Zanesville

By Tim Puet
Catholic Times Reporter

Around the turn of the 20th century, doctors at the Margaret Blue Sanitarium in Zanesville found that they needed staff members. A story that can’t be verified, but has been passed down for 120 years, says that when they asked where nurses could be found, they were told, “Do you want some nurses? Then get yourself some nuns.”

Dr. Thomas Sutton, director of the institution, turned to Father Anthony Leininger, pastor of Zanesville St. Nicholas Church, and Father Leininger told him to see the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity who were teaching at St. Nicholas School. The Franciscans responded by sending five sisters from the congregation’s motherhouse at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to work at the sanitarium in 1900. Members of the congregation have been part of health care in Zanesville ever since.   

The sanitarium quickly outgrew its original home and was renamed Good Samaritan Hospital when it moved to a mansion in 1902. By 1905, it had outgrown that space, and a new hospital was built. Through the years, buildings were added until, in 1997, Good Samaritan affiliated with Bethesda, the city’s other hospital, and both were given the name Genesis HealthCare System. Genesis consolidated the two hospitals into one enlarged campus on the Bethesda site in 2015, and the former Good Samaritan Hospital building was razed one year later.

During the 1940s and ’50s, more than 40 Franciscan sisters were on the staff of Good Samaritan Hospital and its former nursing school. Today, three sisters remain at Genesis Hospital, where Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated Mass with them on Thursday, Feb. 11, the World Day of the Sick and the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The three are Sister Maureen Anne Shepard, OSF, director of mission for the Genesis system, who has been in Zanesville since 2007; Sister Bernadette Selinsky, OSF, a chaplain who has served the system since 1996; and Sister Kay Warning, OSF, a hospital volunteer who came to Zanesville in August 2020.

Their congregation was founded in 1869 in Manitowoc and has been involved in health care and education ever since. It has about 190 members who serve in six states. Its core principles are joyful acceptance of poverty, love for the Church, simplicity and selfless dedication to the service of others.

“The Genesis system is a sponsored ministry of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. As mission director, my main responsibility has been ensuring that the mission, vision and values of the congregation, Catholic health care and Genesis are lived out daily through formation, outreach, social activities and community benefit programs,” Sister Maureen Anne said. 

“The Genesis leadership model is serving leadership. The term ‘servant leadership’ is a familiar one and relates to a philosophy of leadership. Serving leadership puts that philosophy into practice. It engages everyone as a leader, no matter what their role, because everyone can serve as an example of leadership in some way.”

Sister Maureen Anne grew up in Cambridge and was taught by sisters of her order, who remain involved with Christ Our Light Parish and St. Benedict Elementary School in that city.
She has been a Franciscan sister for 46 years.  Before coming to the hospital in 2007, she was a teacher at Zanesville Rosecrans High School from 1978-83. She also has served as a sister in Michigan and Wisconsin. She was a faculty member and administrator at her congregation’s Holy Family College in Manitowoc for 20 years and was its president from 1999-2003. The college was permanently closed late last year because of the combination of declining enrollment and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before becoming a sister, she graduated from Holy Family College but not because she was interested in religious life. “The college was known for teacher education, and the price was right,” she said. She then taught for four years at Roncalli High School in Manitowoc. 

“At the end of my third year there, I was driving home to Ohio in the summer, and I remember I was passing a clump of trees on Interstate 65 when the thought suddenly came to me, ‘Why not become a sister?’ It came in an instant, but it changed my life,” Sister Maureen Anne said. “I held onto that thought, and when I came back to Manitowoc in the fall, I applied for admission to the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. My formation in religious life began a year later.”

Sister Bernadette and Sister Kay both have been members of the congregation for 54 years. Sister Bernadette served at the former Good Samaritan Hospital in Zanesville 1991 and 1992 as a chaplain, returned in 1996 and has been there ever since. She’s a native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and a proud Green Bay Packers fan.

“I grew up in Green Bay around the time when (coach) Vince Lombardi’s team was winning all those championships,” Sister Bernadette said. Becoming a sister “seemed like sort of the natural thing to do for me because of the family I’m from,” she added. Two of her older sisters also joined the Manitowoc Franciscans, with one of them later helping to establish A New Genesis, an association of the faithful, with vowed and non-vowed members, in 1983.

Sister Bernadette was a music teacher for 19 years in Wisconsin, Illinois, California and Arizona and then spent three years in transition before becoming a chaplain.

“What I do as a chaplain hasn’t changed that much over the years, but health-care delivery has changed immensely,” she said. “It has become more complex. At the same time, patients and their families have become more knowledgeable, with higher expectations for their care.”

Sister Kay was a teacher of mathematics and other subjects at grade schools and high schools in Wisconsin, California, Nebraska and Michigan for 23 years and then served as assistant registrar and administrative assistant for nearly 20 years at Holy Family College, followed by six years at the motherhouse. Her first position in health care was as a representative at a long-term, skilled-care facility in Nebraska, where she spent two years before coming to Zanesville.

“I grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, where our congregation had a strong presence,” she said. “Being a sister was something I always thought about. There wasn’t a big moment where I suddenly realized God was calling me to the religious life. I just kept feeling drawn to it and realized in time that this was a life in which I felt comfortable.

“I always wanted to serve others, and this is the essence of what a sister does,” Sister Kay said. “A sister is someone who has thought of working with others in the context of a relationship with God. She works wherever she’s needed, knowing God with his strength is behind her.”

Genesis is the largest health-care system in a six-county region of southeast Ohio, including Muskingum, Coshocton and Perry counties in the Diocese of Columbus. “People in this region always have shown a deep respect for our congregation, whatever their religion or if they have no religion,” Sister Maureen Anne said. “Some people have told me that when they come to the hospital and see one of us, it makes their day because it makes them feel they’re in good hands.”

“When people see us, they know we’re sisters, and you can tell the good feeling they have for us,” Sister Bernadette said. “That leads to a lot of good one-on-one conversations, which break down barriers that may exist.”

All three sisters said that although they wonder about the long-term future of religious life because of the decline in the number of vocations, their main focus is toward fulfilling the role they feel God has given them. 

“What will happen to religious congregations in the future concerns me on one hand, but then it doesn’t on the other,” Sister Bernadette said. “Ultimately, it’s up to how God helps us shape the future. If we’re meant to grow, that’s fine, but if not – well, there’s a time and place for everything. We don’t know the future. 

“Especially these days, things are so in flux that it’s more important to live from one day to the next doing the work God has entrusted to us and keeping open to God’s vibrant Spirit speaking to everyone.”