Open to All People

In 1882, Dr. A.C. Lamothe Ramsay asked the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict of St. Joseph, Minnesota, to consider establishing a hospital in the growing city of St. Cloud. The Benedictine Sisters, deeply committed to addressing the needs of the community, appealed to the St. Cloud City Council for support with the intention to build a hospital that “shall be open to all people irrespective of creed.” Despite numerous failed attempts for support, the sisters established St. Benedict’s Hospital in St. Cloud in 1886.

The people of St. Cloud were not quickly accepting of hospital care or the sisters as nurses. The first couple of months were slow, and the sisters contemplated closing the hospital. Then, on April 14, 1886, a devastating cyclone struck Central Minnesota, killing 72 people and injuring many more. The sisters cared unwaveringly and with great skill for the victims for weeks. The tragic event is still the deadliest tornado on record in Minnesota. It firmly established both the sisters’ reputation as health care providers and the need for hospital care in St. Cloud.

The hospital moved two more times and was named St. Raphael’s Hospital before the sisters borrowed the immense sum of $2,000,000 in 1926 to build a new hospital on Sixth Avenue North. It was renamed St. Cloud Hospital and was dedicated on February 9, 1928.It has been in its current location ever since. In 1962, the sisters separately incorporated St. Cloud Hospital from the religious order, and two years later, deeded ownership of the hospital’s land, buildings and equipment to the St. Cloud Hospital Corporation for one dollar. The Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict and the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Cloud currently serve in a sponsorship role through membership on the corporate board of St. Cloud Hospital.

St. Cloud Hospital and the St. Cloud Clinic of Internal Medicine developed CentraCare Health System in 1995. Today, what was known as St. Cloud Hospital is now named CentraCare St. Cloud Hospital and our system is simply called CentraCare. What has remained constant since the 1800s is a commitment to understanding the needs of our community and passionately serving those needs.