The Alexian Brothers are a religious congregation of Catholic men who trace their roots to the Beghards, groups of men who banded together to serve the sick, poor and helpless in Germany and the Low Countries more than 700 years ago.
The earliest record of the Beghards' work is a 1334 city hall document from Aachen, Germany, that announces a gift of alms to the Beghards for caring for the helpless and homeless. When the Black Plague struck Europe in 1347, the Beghards nursed the sick, buried the dead, preached the gospel, and lived the values of Jesus in all ways. Groups of Beghards gradually evolved into religious communities that lived by the Rule of St. Augustine. Some chose as their patron Saint Alexius, the son of a wealthy Roman senator, who gave up a life of luxury to serve the poor. In 1458, these communities received official status by papal decree as the Congregation of Alexian Brothers. The Alexian Brothers extended their ministry to the United States in 1866, when Brother Bonaventure Thelen, C.F.A., arrived in New York from Germany. He later founded a hospital in a wood frame house in Chicago. He carried the hospital's first patient to the facility in his arms on June 12, 1866, and that summer, the Alexian Brothers in Chicago cared for victims of a cholera epidemic. Soon they earned a reputation for compassion and professional expertise. That reputation endures to this day. Besides the American Province of Alexian Brothers, which is called the Immaculate Conception Province, the Congregation of Alexian Brothers maintains health care ministries in Belgium, England, Ireland, Germany, India and the Philippines. The Immaculate Conception Province supports the Philippines ministry, which provides medical and dental services for the poor in Davao City. For more information about the Alexian Brothers, visit their web site at www.alexianbrothers.org. Alexian Brothers Health System carries out the healing mission of the Catholic Church through the Alexian Brothers ministries by identifying and developing effective responses to the health and housing needs of those we are called to serve. www.alexianhealthsystem.org |
Alexian Brothers Medical Center
Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospitals |