Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta

In 1854, eight Sisters of Mercy made their way from Ireland to San Francisco, and immediately began caring for residents of a city struck by cholera, typhoid, and influenza. Among them was Sister Mary Baptist Russell, a well-educated daughter of a middle-class Irish family, who is recognized as the California foundress of the Sisters of Mercy. Sister Mary Baptist and the other seven sisters founded St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, now the oldest continuously operating hospital in the city.

The sisters made their way on to Yreka in 1871 to assess the situation there. Because the gold rush boom had dwindled, they moved on to Red Bluff, where they opened the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy on March 3, 1882. Twenty-five years later, they accepted a donation from Elizabeth Kraft to operate what became known as St. Elizabeth Community Hospital. In the late 1940s, the Sisters of Mercy assumed responsibility for St. Caroline’s Hospital – now known as Mercy Medical Center Redding. Finally, in 1985, Eskaton Hospital in Mt. Shasta needed new sponsorship, and the sisters began to serve there. We now call this hospital Mercy Mt. Shasta Medical Center. Sr. Mary Baptist’s dream of service in the farthest north of the state was completed.